Red Chance
by Vetti
Summary: In which Kaname's hobbies include 'sleeping around' and 'pestering a certain silverette', Yuuki likes taking advantage of her brother for various purposes, and Zero's the oblivious and unwilling participant in the entire mess when past catches up to present. [Kaname x Zero, Minor Night Class x Zero]
1. Commitment

It's the start of something new lol

* * *

Kaname Kuran is a well-known fiend who indiscriminately sleeps with a great deal of people. Well, not _that_ indiscriminately. Some standards are meant to be set. The primary requirements for his bed partners consist only of two conditions: that this person is (a) attractive and (b) free of the standard sexually transmitted diseases. It's a relatively low standard which isn't as addressed as it should be, however it exists. If you've ticked both conditions, then _congratulations,_ you are finally an eligible partner of the night of one notorious playboy. Finding partners isn't a hard task for the Kuran heir, anyway. If you were as attractive, rich, smart, and charming as the man; it was impossible to run out of choices. That was precisely the manner of how Zero Kiryu identified the wine-haired prince charming incarnate who is also conveniently the brother of his best friend.

"You want me to do what?"

Yuuki looked back at Zero with a hopeful gleam in her eyes, hands interlaced and positioned underneath her chin as she visually begged for her silver-haired companion to take pity on her. Zero looked visibly unfazed despite being the receiving end of the pleading gaze.

"I _need_ you to interview my brother…over his _nightly affairs._ Please, Zero! I really need this to ace a subject and save my GWA from falling into a line of 1." Yuuki pleaded.

Zero looked ridiculed at his best friend's proposition and leaned back on the grassy plains they were at as he closed his eyes to ponder over the thought. Yuuki knew Zero enough to know that he was contemplating in that stance and not ignoring her but that didn't throw off the hopeful look she had. Her hands tightened against each other in a natural praying stance in hopes that her best friend would accept the proposition

Zero let out a large breath, and Yuuki's gaze had only increasingly become more hopeful and unpleasant in the eyes of the silver-haired man, "Yuuki, I'm not a psychology major. I want to help you but…I don't think I'm capable of even asking the _right_ questions without being suspicious. And, honestly, does _this_ look interested to you?"

"He doesn't only do it with women," Yuuki corrected.

"Okay, pushing that really unnecessary piece of information at the darkest alleys of my brain. I don't think I'm capable and," Yuuki opened her mouth to interject and comment offhandedly but no words were spoken as Zero raises his hand to stop her from cutting his rationalization, "your brother is a person so I don't think exploiting his affairs for the sake of a good grade is _ideal_ even if you're his precious little sister or with the very likely has a sister-complex."

Yuuki bat the idea off with a hand gesture and replied to the accusation, "I don't think he cares. He loooooooooooves me too much. I did something similar in high school, anyway, and he didn't bat an eyelash. The questions don't have to be specific. You could just go with whatever your brain wants to spurt out."

"Okay, presuming that I am going along with your idea," Zero stops midway through the thought when an idea passes his mind, "wait, why don't _you do_ it?"

Yuuki cooed back, "Oh yes, you _are_ ," and continued, "because I'm his little sister _duh._ Would he openly talk to me about his sexcapades?"

Zero makes a disgruntled face that Yuuki catches quickly, "There, that's it! Now, you understand why."

"Hypothetically and _honestly_ , what makes you think that your brother's even gonna let me talk to him?"

Yuuki cleared her throat and declared, "Kaname likes pretty people. He will be happy to know that I have sent him such a splendid creature."

Zero grumbles under his breath and remarks, "That's honestly one of the weirder things you've said today. I'll…think about it."

Yuuki held both of Zero's hands and begged, the pleadinglook directed at the silverette, "Please, Zero! I really need an answer now! Deadline of proposals is noon today! And, this is literally the first time my professor praised any of my ideas, and I've been under him for three terms already."

Zero pulled himself upward to a sitting position, his eyes snapped open as he unwittingly raised his voice, very likely to have awoken the not-so-friendly and sleep-deprived college kid who had fallen asleep in the middle of the open field, "And, you just told me this right now?"

"Sheesh, don't be so loud but _yes_ I knew you'd have no other choice when it comes to your poor and academically ungifted best friend."

Zero fell back to the grassy plains and groaned before nodding in response. Yuuki grinned at the helpless action of her best friend, fully knowing that she totally won the argument by a landslide. "Is that a yes or did you just hit your head too hard?"

"It's a yes," Zero replied defeated.

Yuuki grinned and tapped Zero's head, "There, there, Zero. Always remember that today you have helped a fellow student and a good friend, excel in a field she is typically shit at."

Zero added, "Through manipulation"

Yuuki nodded, "that too but we don't have to include that, yes."

Zero closed his eyes and muttered loud enough for only the two of them to hear, "you owe me one."

Yuuki hummed and continued patting the soft silver tresses until she realized something very vital to the situation at hand, "Zero, what time is it?"

Zero opened his eyes and raised his arm to view his wrist watch from his position, "11:53."

Yuuki shrieked and made a run for the psychology department while muttering her goodbyes in the process of running. Zero raised his hand to say goodbye and put his arms behind his head as he let the wind ghost over his body, calming him before the inevitable storm. He's in deep shit but it's not like he could do anything about it anymore. Kaname hopefully won't recognize him. He has fully reformed and remodeled himself. And, it's not like he introduced himself to the brunette...right.

* * *

Zero was walking back to his dorm from his last class when he saw a small figure from his peripheral vision jump him. Not given enough reaction time, Zero fell with the small figure that tackled him, "Yuuki, What the fuck?"

Yuuki wore an oversized hoodie and jogger pants, looking every inch the potential serial killer she could have been. It seemed as if she had been jogging or running from God knows where. Sandwiched in between Zero and her, however, was a thick envelope which Zero had only noticed not too long after the collision.

Yuuki squealed, "Hi Zero!" followed by nervous laughter that eventually morphed into hysterical cackling. Zero looked visibly disturbed at the strange behavior of his best friend, so he starts talking, "Yuuki, you're being weirder than usual. Is something wrong?"

Yuuki quieted down at the remark and made the strangest wide smile as she bit her lips in the most unsightly way possible and generally only looked like a maniac in the eyes of the silver-haired man. The moment was immediately cut when Yuuki holds up the thick envelope previously squished between them with both hands like it was gospel, "Look!"

"It's an envelope…I'm happy that you've managed to pass by the supplies store, Yuuki."

Yuuki shook her head and spoke in excited and strangely hushed tones as if there were actual people surrounding them, "No, I meant what's inside of it, dumbass!"

Zero looked away and rolled his eyes knowing that the shorter brunette was going to be offended by his actions. Yuuki was easy to notice the gesture, "You're rolling your eyes at me, aren't you?!"

"No, no; obviously no," Zero replied, sarcasm overflowing from spoken words.

"Yeah, whatever, but here," Yuuki handed the envelope to Zero. Zero took the envelope and realized they were still on the ground from the collision so he proposes, "I think we should stand up and continue this conversation not on the floor."

Yuuki eagerly nods her head and stands up as he chattered her life away like usual, "Okay! Here, in this envelope, is information you wouldn't know existed and compiled systematically!"

"And, that information would be?"

"Open the envelope!"

Zero opened the envelope and saw a profile of a student he saw around campus a few times. Tucking that paper back, Zero found another profile of a student he faintly recognized but knew was studying in the university. Every sheet of paper had the basic and very personal information about each person presented in the papers. That's when Zero realized that these were basically very confidential information that when put to the wrong hands could cause so much danger, and he wasn't exactly sure if he was part of the statistics that denoted that he was part of the league of 'right hands', _"What is this?"_

"It's a collection of information of people Kaname has slept with for the recent month!"

"And, you did this why?" The reluctance of actually reading the documents his best friend gave to him started seeping through the tone of the silverette's voice.

Yuuki replied honestly, "I didn't do this. I just asked our butler and she led me to some shelves and gave me this! Pretty cool, aye?"

"No, it's _not_ cool and what do I do with this?"

"Study it?"

Zero was just about to reason out on how evasive and exploitive the whole ordeal was when Yuuki immediately cut his train of thought as she jumpily shouted before running away to unfamiliar streets, "Oh, hey! Look at the time, it's so late here. I'll go home now. Good luck, Zero!"

Zero looked back at the paper and read some files before he'd call it a day and dramatically just throw the papers across his room (and probably pick it up right after because Yuuki might get mad at him). Skimming through a few papers, he speed read the content and removed a large chunk from the front the check the pages from the mid-part of the stack and what he found were a bunch of unsettlingly high definition pictures of Kaname with…a bunch of people…doing…stuff…well, that definitely explained Yuuki's behavior and that definitely left a dent in his brain and in his purity. Damn, the things he does for his best friend.

* * *

[12/15/2015] I sort of revised the chapter to make it a wee bit understandable. I didn't really try to _improve_ on anything because I'm treating this piece of fiction as a historical account of the development of my writing lol


	2. A Past Unbound

A hundred pounds of gratitude to **Inu no youkai** , **sea07** , **irmina** , and **guest** for reviewing, you guys are the best!

* * *

Zero found himself in a small café the following day dressed down for the morning, skimming through the really invasive compilation of documents. The stack was relatively thinner after he disposed of the disturbing photographs at the latter half of the files.

The small café was a relatively isolated place, free of most university students in the vicinity who were probably still sleeping in at such an ungodly hour. However, as most coffee establishments; they operate on insomniacs and the rare kind of morning people who pass by such establishments at early and generally ungodly hours.

Zero sipped his dairy-infested coffee as he read through the strangest information that he thought wasn't even relevant. His eyes fully engrossed on his hand held printed documents. The absence of most people helped him focus on the content he was presented with, as he ignored his surroundings—assuming the irrelevance of external stimuli.

He could hear faint footsteps increasing in volume, as if it were getting closer. Zero brushed it off as another nameless college student who probably had to study for an exam in a relatively peaceful setting or an insomniac going for his morning caffeine fix.

The soft tapping of footsteps stopped and Zero resumed his undivided attention on the papers; but then, a familiar screech came to his ears: the sound of friction drawn by a chair on the ground surface. Amethyst immediately withdrew itself out of the comprehensively written document, to confront the stranger's unwelcome advances.

Zero released the documents on his table face-down, and was ready to confront the other as he looked straight at the other person's eyes. Only to be frozen in shock at the sharp register of the man's identity.

"Zero Kiryu"

Ahh shit.

"Why are you here and what do you want?"

"Coincidence," Kaname replied, clearly amused by the accusatory tone directed at him.

"Bullshit. How do you know my name?"

"It's kind of funny how you didn't even have to ask me who I am."

Kaname chuckled at the lack of any articulated response and flashed a small smile before speaking once again, "I haven't forgotten if that's what you're asking."

Red alert signs literally flashed at Zero's vision as he gripped on his coffee while his other arm rested above the printed files, clenching and unclenching. He kept his eyes leveled and away from the saccharine smile of the brunette.

 _Ahh shit, he remembers._

"You haven't forgotten as well, judging from that reaction."

Kaname smirked and held Zero's unsteady hand above the stack of papers to calm him down, but didn't achieve his purpose as the opposite had taken place. Zero quickly withdrew his hand from the invasive limb and covered it with his other hand out of instinctual self-preservation, "I think the best route we should take is the one where we forget all of it and just put it behind us."

Kaname closed his eyes and tipped his head, as he crossed his arms in the guise of contemplating. Zero looked at the other man patiently waiting for his response.

"No."

Zero grunted and rolled his eyes. He put both his hands on the table curled up around each other and tried his luck on convincing the stubborn brunette, "Alright. I won't act like a helpless wimpy virgin out here and—"

"Wimpy is contestable, and you're not a virgin," Kaname interjected.

"Yes, point taken but—!"

"And, your virginity was taken by me."

Zero groaned and palmed his forehead out frustration as he called out to the brunette, "Shut up," and pondered what he was actually supposed to say and ended up continuing the remark with a question, "Where was I?"

"You're not a wimpy virgin because your virginity was taken by me." Kaname leaned back and smirked, looking every bit satisfied at his choice while Zero groaned and leaned closer, closing his hands against each other and resting his head on it. Kaname grinned back at the murderous aura seeping through the fibers of the silver-haired main.

"That's really beside the point."

"And, your point is?"

"That whole 'I slept with you' thing is past and forgotten. You've got your bed buddies; and I've got my own life to worry about, okay?" Zero offered his hand to seal the _deal_ but Kaname doesn't even move from his previous position. Wine-colored eyes trace a pathway from the tip of the silverette's fingers to the pink hue of Zero's lips. Zero feels strangely violated at the drawn gaze but doesn't speak any further, not wanting the taller brunette to manipulate and twist his words.

"Again, what is your _point_? And, what are your _worries_ in life exactly? Is erectile dysfunction one of them because I sure can cure that for you, babe."

The indifference of the silverette's expression slowly morphed into irritation. Such rearrangement of his appearance was caused primarily by the taller man sitting across him. Kaname remained at his complacent position and stance, embodying the arrogant and pompous prick that Zero had last remembered and always embodied the dark-haired man as.

"Did you even fucking listen?"

"Yes, yes; you had a very interesting thesis statement. The content was not as upstanding. Your oral persuasive essay fails at its primary purpose."

"Stop giving me your smartass comebacks. I slept with you one time and that was history."

"Two."

Zero furrowed his brows at the suggestion. He could only remember a singular time that he had slept with the brown-haired deviant, and that was before the latter had become a slut—no offense, "Two?"

"Morning after; does that ring a bell?"

Zero's puzzled expression dissipated with an "oh" after transparently contemplating the logical value of Kaname's argument.

At that sight, Kaname's expression gradually morphed into a nostalgic smile. His eyes relaxed slightly while his mouth was gradually drawn upward. Zero ceased any potential movement at the spectacle presented in front of him. He had almost felt…special to have seen such an expression painted on the other man's face; until he had earned some sensibility and shook it off after realizing that he may have started to imitate the said expression on his face, and communicated the wrong message.

"I really don't know how you got my name, but I'm friends with your sister and I'm not gonna let some mistake in high school ruin that."

"Don't call it a mistake, love."

"Whatever you want to say, Kuran"

"Listen," Kaname cleared his throat then enveloped Zero's much smaller hands with his own and drew the silver-haired man closer to him. Zero was unwillingly pulled closer to the other man as he inevitably caught the fragrant musk complimenting the other man's natural drawing scent, "I want you and I'm gonna make you want me back sooner or later."

"Fuck off."

With that, Zero stood up and gulped the remaining contents of his cup as he took his papers and walked away from the taller brunette, not looking back and continuing a fast pace so that the other wouldn't follow him.

Kaname wasn't even planning on following the silver-haired beauty. He had been content with stay in the small establishment and following Zero's behind with his typically unnerving gaze. He did follow through with the latter, his eyes only glued on the silverette's retreating form with a devious smile still painted on flawless features and a plan etched on his brain.

"You are mine, Zero Kiryu."

* * *

Zero literally walked out of the coffee shop with absolutely no clue on where he should go. The library should have been a plausible option if it weren't _that_ early in the morning. He can't just skim through the documents in plain sight as well. Some passerby may find his activities suspicious. But, then, _why exactly was he even doing this?_

It was too strange of a coincidence for Kaname Kuran to just go introduce himself back into Zero Kiryu's life after his sister had given him some prophetic mission of GPA-boosting levels. It's an instance that proved to be too convenient, and too unreal to actually be happening. It was almost as if he was framed and the Kuran siblings were both conspiring against him, but Zero knew no matter how Yuuki loved her elder brother; she would be too talkative not to let a word slip off her mouth. But, what the fuck would the elder Kuran even want from the silver-haired man? Blackmail for something that could easily be shut off for a juvenile mistake?

Zero had been walking rapidly without looking at his path when he had been sharply stopped off his motions as he had crashed with a hard and strangely sculpted wall. He didn't exactly fall down, but the impact was evident as he was pushed a few steps backward while still unstable with his footwork.

Zero had felt the strong winds push him downwards thus making him instinctually close his eyes, with his hands clutching the papers to save him from more humiliation. However, he had been surprised to feel that his back has not yet touched the ground and had only been stuck in a strange freefall.

 _Is this like the slow motion movies show when people are about to fall into their untimely death?_

Someone else laughs good-heartedly near him, and Zero realized that he may have just said that out loud. With this, came the realization that there was an actual person beside him and that it was that other person's grip on his arm which had held him on place, and away from the ground and whatever injuries it promised. So, the horribly disfigured wall was actually a person.

Zero quickly composed himself; and stood straight in front of the taller stranger as he offered his thanks and introduced himself, offering a hand, "Thanks. Uh, I'm Zero Kiryu."

The other man nodded back at the shorter man's actions and reciprocated the gesture as he had introduced himself, "It's nice to meet you. I'm—"

The stranger's phone rang.

* * *

So, yeah, does anyone have any bets on the new character waltzing into Zero's life? I'm not really fond of original characters so it's a series character not an OC. :)


	3. Strangers and Coffee Houses

Millions of thanks to my favorite people: **irmina** , **shia naru** , **ben4kevin** , **Kai Hoshizuki** , **death sama lover, .1, mar1711, perfectly flawed woman, Chaos, Guest,** and **Kitty-chan99**! I wanna say there's a prize for getting the identity of the stranger right but I don't really have a lot to give so I'm just gonna give away the illusory dark side cookies that no one really received in the first place. Thanks for the amazing amount of feedback, really. :) You are all soo sweet! :D

* * *

"Sorry, I'll have to take this."

Zero stood in front of tall stranger awkwardly looking at every direction that wasn't the latter's. Humming a random tune at the back of his mind as he tried to silence out the stranger's conversation, not wanting to be involved with the other's personal affairs. It's not like he was involved anyway.

Zero was brought back to the situation when the other had cleared his throat and apologized, "I'm sorry for that. It's Takuma Ichijou. It's nice to meet you, Kiryuu-kun."

"Yeah, sorry for running into you; I should've looked at where I was going."

Takuma smiled at the polite response, and Zero felt really out of place as the other guy was literally being the comic book leading man prototype with blooming flowers as a backdrop while he was just being that really clumsy extra who was too engrossed with looking over a bunch of really suspicious documents that had accidentally crossed into the blossoming leading male protagonist. The silverette was exactly the type of character who would probably be dead or lost nowhere by the end of the episode of a hypothetical series.

"It's alright. I wasn't paying attention as well. Would you like to join me for a coffee?"

Zero felt a little creeped out at a stranger inviting him to his early morning routine, but since the other looked trustworthy enough; he disregarded the thought and followed the other man. It's not like he was a vulnerable little girl who constantly had to equip herself with the appropriate tools against rapists. But, then Zero realized that the only nearby coffee shop was the same place he was hell-bent on avoiding.

"You don't mean the university café, do you?" Zero asked, strangely hoping that the taller blonde would say otherwise.

"Not really, I know this nearby café. It's not in the campus but it's just a few blocks down."

"Care to give me a name?"

"Café Maria, the owner is a family friend so drinks on me, I guess."

Zero shrugged and followed the blonde haired man off his path towards the café he was talking about. The taller blonde man had merrily started talking soliloquies that he really wasn't up for hearing, so he just tuned it all out with a mental humming of a tune stuck in his brain moments ago.

Takuma stopped for a moment, and Zero ceased walking as well but he didn't see any cafes or any establishments of mass beverage consumption. Zero turned back at Takuma to ask whether they were there yet but the taller blonde seemed to look at him expectantly, which Zero didn't quite understand the meaning of. He continued his question, nonetheless, "So, are we there yet?"

Takuma gave Zero one of his blinding smiles yet again, "I was asking you a question, Kiryu-kun."

Zero felt guilty for tuning out the blonde so he apologized. Takuma seemed to take the apology to heart and just continued talking while managing to return to his pace of walking towards the café he had been talking about earlier. Zero didn't tune the taller man as much this time. Instead, he tried to detect whether Takuma's tone was questioning so he wouldn't have to actually listen.

"What's your major, by the way? That was my question earlier."

Zero caught up to the inquiring tone quickly and responded, "Philosophy."

Takuma hummed in response while Zero had continued his pace, not bothering to follow common courtesy and ask what the blonde man's major was.

"Well, that's an interesting choice," Takuma remarked before adding, "You're not one for talking, are you?"

"It really depends on the situation, I guess."

"Here we are!"

Takuma and Zero stopped in front of a small and elegantly decorated establishment which looked every bit the expensive coffee it promised. Well, as long as he didn't run to one Kaname Kuran, it was alright, and the other guy said coffee was on him anyway.

* * *

Yuuki was having trouble on the homework she was supposed to accomplish the previous day, but just slept on. The basic coursework was for her to propose a _unique_ setup on classical conditioning which had to materialize within the term, but every time the idea of Pavlov, her brain would immediately redirect to inappropriate thoughts on matters with a non-academic nature. At that point, she was literally contemplating on getting checked for ADHD because the images of friendly and innocuous domesticated animals just wouldn't rid themselves off her brain. A familiar click pulled her away from her reverie. She immediately knew the source of the sound as it had been absorbed into routine to recognize the snap that was echoed into her room when the front door is closed.

"Nii-sama!"

Kaname smiles fondly at his younger sibling as he opens his arms to envelope his younger sister into his loving embrace. Yuuki fully accepts and reciprocates the affection and routine act that they had been accustomed to ever since they stopped living in their parents' house.

Kaname notices that his sister doesn't pull away as fast as she had and inquires in a gentle tone reserved only for his loved ones, "Do you have a problem?"

"What makes you say that?"

"You just stayed longer attached to my hip."

Yuuki sighed and grunted soon after. Kaname hung his coat and left his shoes by the entrance; as he took a seat on the couch in the living room and left a small space for his sister beside him. Patting the empty space beside him, Kaname ushered Yuuki to sit beside him.

Yuuki came around the small space and took a seat beside Kaname. Kaname leaned back at the soft piece of furniture and spread his arms wide in an instinctual protective stance .She curls up against Kaname's wider frame and starts, "I just don't really feel good. I feel…inadequate?"

Kaname hums and raises brow at the short statement which was unusual of the shorter brunette. The younger one had always exhibited behavior that showed her inheritance of their mother's more speech-inclined characteristics. Seeing his little sister quiet down like that caused Kaname great concern for the shorter brunette, but he teases her nonetheless, "Inadequate, that's a new word."

Yuuki jabbed at Kaname's rib. It wasn't really painful but it took the latter by surprise; enough to for Kaname to let out a short guttural sound. Yuuki shook her head and decided not to talk about it anymore. Kaname appeared to be genuinely concerned but the shorter brunette only curls up closer and keeps the words tucked in behind her mouth. He doesn't try to pursue the matter any further and only combs through his sister's long locks to comfort her.

Yuuki smiles a pained however inarguably genuine smile, while Kaname can't help but return the expression. The younger Kuran doesn't speak and stares into the small particles of dust floating through filtered rays of sunlight. An unnatural silence envelopes the room but proves to be short-lived when Yuuki shrieks and realizes something she should have done, "I need you to meet someone!"

Kaname chuckles and replies, "And, who would that be?"

"No one too important, really; he's a really close friend I want you to know."

"Are you sure 'love interest' isn't the appropriate term?"

Red resurfaces at the apples of Yuuki's cheeks over her brother's teasing. Kaname laughs good-heartedly at the expression of his sister. Yuuki snorts and doesn't speak any further. The silence almost returns until Yuuki's phone resounds within the wide and unoccupied spaces in their apartment.

Yuuki runs back to her room, smoothly passing through the small opening of the door to grab her phone and attend to the phone call. Kaname stays seated; comfortably listening to the gentle taps his sister made by maneuvering around their apartment.

Yuuki picks up the phone, not bothering to check who was calling her due to her limited and easily distinguishable contacts, "Hello?"

" _Yuuki!"_

Yuuki immediately recognized that voice and realized how massively convenient the silver-haired man's call was, "Zero?"

" _Yeah I have to tell you something."_

"I have to tell you something too!" Yuuki beamed at the phone but added afterwards, "but I have a class. This could wait until later, right?"

" _I guess."_

"Okay! Commerce Building Library, 4:00 PM! Bye!"

" _Hey wait I—!"_

Yuuki ended the call, not hearing the last few syllables that went through the line. Nonetheless, she had decided that by that afternoon, Zero and Kaname should already acquaint themselves with each other. She only had four months left in the semester for her make or break class project and for the first time in her life, she was actually not-cramming! Progress!

Yuuki ran back to Kaname's direction to find her taller sibling still lounging on the couch. She sneakily went behind him in an attempt to catch Kaname off guard and surprise him but the latter looked back all too fast, stopping the shorter brunette from her schemes. Yuuki looked disappointed at the outcome and Kaname had sensed the negative feeling but didn't understand the source of Yuuki's dissatisfaction.

Yuuki cleared her throat and spoke, "I need you to come with me later at the Commerce Library."

"What time?"

"4:00 PM."

"I guess I could make room. What's this for again?"

"The person I want you to meet! But, it's a surprise, okay!"

Kaname nodded slowly as if taunting the shorter girl. Yuuki crossed her arms and blew her cheeks to a childish expression, making Kaname let out a small laugh as he grabbed the shorter brunette and ruffled her hair, "Okay, okay. I'll be there and I'll stop teasing my adorable baby sister."

* * *

"Hey wait, I need to—!"

Beep.

"—say it right now," Zero finished his sentence lamely.

His companion smiled at his hand held beverage, and took a sip off his coffee. Zero sighed, his shoulders sagging and form falling, as he locked off his phone and tucked it into his pocket as he stirred the cubes of sugar he dumped on his experimental hot beverage.

"So, what's your next class?"

Zero looked up from his drink, but did not cease the stirring motion as he answered, "I have a literature elective, but I'm not sure really."

Takuma nodded and set his drink down as he took a quick glance at the silver-haired man who was too engrossed with stirring sugar cubes into his coffee to notice his blonde companion staring at him. Takuma held onto his cup again and inquired before taking a quick sip, "Not sure?"

Zero contemplated on whether he should tell his schedule to a complete—well not-so complete stranger, and just figured that it wouldn't really cause much harm if he'd impart a public spectacle of his life, "He's a moody guy who likes free cuts and heavy coursework, so he compensates the unattended classes with heavy homeworks."

"So, is today a free cut?"

"Well, I'm counting on it." Zero responds. His sugar cubes finally mix completely with the hot beverage, so he puts off the stirrer and takes a sip of his drink, eliciting a moan.

Takuma had been staring at the silverette's interaction with the small inanimate cup of coffee. The blonde man finds himself gravely amused at the adorable ignorance of the silver-haired man so he comments offhandedly, "that good, huh?"

Zero then realizes that he does indeed have a companion, which meant that said companion may or may not have been observing him at his most personal moments of coffee-stirring so he sits straight and tries not to look back at the amused blonde as he tries to start another conversation, "So…uh…nice weather?"

Takuma hums in reply and Zero feels a pink hue rush up his cheeks. The silverette bows his head as he tries his best not to let the blonde man notice the striking contrast between the attractive pink hue covering his face from his normal alabaster complexion. Having sensed the embarrassment of the silver-haired man, Takuma initiated the conversation instead, "So, what's in that envelope?"

"I—um, it's…well…"

"Oh, I'm sorry, if it's personal stuff, I won't bother." Takuma smiles after delivering the gentlemanly claim and Zero just feels more and more suspicious of the beaming persona presented in front of him.

"What time is it now?"

"10:52. I can accompany you to your class."

Zero starts gathering up his things while bidding goodbye to his companion, "Thanks for the treat and I can…" but stops midway through his words when realization hits him, "how did you know what time my class starts?"

Takuma doesn't look specifically guilty but he doesn't look the opposite as well. The light-hearted blonde smiles like second nature and merely remarks, "Lucky guess"

"Yeah, right"

Takuma held his hands in surrender with that good-hearted smile etched onto his face, "Okay, you got me. I'm in the same class. Your section is L04, right?"

Zero narrowed his eyes at how unusually suspicious the occurrence of some very recent events have been, but eventually shrugged it off like he had always been doing, "Right, and if you haven't noticed; we are going to be late if we don't even try to make a run for it."

"I'm with you on that."

With that, Takuma bid his goodbyes to the well-acquainted staff in the cafe and sped walked to the lecture hall with the silver-haired man. A distant echo of the staff's courtesy resounds in the walls of the small café.

* * *

Tell me what you think of the new chapter via review: did you like it or loathe it? Feedback goes a long way! Thanks for reading, loves. ;D


	4. Opportunities

A bucket of gratitude to my favorite people: **Kitty-chan99, Chaos, perfectly flawed woman, Orcux, mar1711, irmina, ben4kevin** , and **Kai Hoshizuki**! :)

* * *

"Zero, this is Kaname: my _brother._ Kaname, this is Zero Kiryu: my best friend."

Yuuki introduced the two men, completely unaware of the acquaintance that has already been properly established years prior to Zero and Yuuki's first meeting. However, it was apparent that neither wanted to expose the unaddressed relationship to the shorter brunette of the trio so the two men feigned unfamiliarity.

Looking expectantly at her two companions, Yuuki was disappointed as the two figures didn't move an inch towards each other. After realizing that neither of the two looked willing to initiate the 'getting to know' stage, Yuuki abruptly grabbed both their arms in the span that she could reach and awkwardly smacked the two men's hands together.

This action seemed to snap both men out of their lucid trance. Zero pulled his hand immediately while Kaname gently did the same action before properly holding out his hand to the silverette. Zero reciprocated the gesture in reluctance, and introduced himself for the sake of formality and appeasing his best friend.

"Zero Kiryu; It's nice to meet you."

"Likewise"

"Um, Yuuki, could you give the two of us a moment?"

Yuuki happily obliged as she walked off to the farthest dusty bookshelf there was in the confines of the book haven. Zero kept a steady gaze at the brunette walking away, while Kaname kept his gaze steadied on Zero's back. Once the short brunette was out of Zero's sight, he finally started talking brashly to the taller brunette, "What the fuck are you doing here?"

"I want you to guess," Kaname teased in a playful tone.

"I'm not gonna play that game with you, Kuran. _No_."

"You know it really irks me how much disdain you have when you speak that name, despite your best friend being of the same descent."

Zero scoffs and crosses his arms at the taller man, refusing to look up at the other man's face which resulted to him being smothered by the view of the wine-haired man's chest. Kaname visibly found the silver-haired man's actions entertaining so he smiles with glee painted all over his chiseled features and starts talking, "I didn't come here wholly of my freewill, you know. There _may_ have been some coercion involved."

"Like I'm gonna believe that."

"I am serious. There was approximately 2% coercion."

Zero didn't laugh at the joke as his expression remained flat, clearly unimpressed. Kaname clearly sees the apathetic expression and remarks, "Honestly, I didn't know who Yuuki was going to introduce me to in the first place."

"Wait," Zero exclaims upon a reminiscent piece of relevant memory, "I think I know why you're here."

Kaname sends Zero an inquisitive look, to which the silver-haired man ignores to trace back to a conversation he had with Yuuki about a project involving her elder sibling. This was probably her idea of a gateway; and it wasn't working as well as it should have been because he was supposed to back out on the whole "let's get into your brother's brain the way I got into his pants years ago but you don't know that and that's precisely the reason I'm backing out" ordeal while they were still into the first few weeks of the term. But, _nope_ , not gonna happen this time because Yuuki just had to show Zero how absolutely invested she was in the project and this is how Zero is completely disarmed of all possible excuses he could offer without disappointing Yuuki or revealing something from Kaname and his shared past.

"Ahh, shit that's it," Zero mutters to himself when he manages to connect the dots, but Kaname hears it still.

"Well, it would _delightful_ for you to share _?_ "

"Not to assholes like you."

"Well, like the saying goes: you are what you eat, huh?"

Zero furrows a brow at the primarily incomprehensible jab. But, when he finally gets the remark, the silverette finds himself releasing a small sound of laughter which he had initially tried to suppress, and eventually disguised as a cough to not please Kaname more than he appears to be.

"Can you stop that?"

"Stop what?"

"Stop being," Zero searches for the word to explain Kaname's behavior but can't find the appropriate insulting word to describe the other man so he settles for the lamest description, "you?"

"Are you asking me or are you trying to make a statement?"

"It's probably a bit of both."

The tips of Kaname's lips turn up and press at his cheeks as he smiles deviously at the silver-haired man. The taller man catches sight of a white object on the floor which greatly contrasted the dark shade of the tiles. Kaname lowers himself by bending his knees. His gaze remains occupied by amethyst orbs as he reaches out to grab the object that caught his peripherals, "Only if you stop being so cute."

"That! That's what I am talking about. _Stop_ that."

Kaname straightens his legs and goes back to his original position, standing in front of the silverette. He towers over the shorter frame as he raises his hand turned back and half-clenched over a small piece of matter, "What's this?"

Kaname turns and unclenches his hand to reveal a small piece of paper, sloppily torn from a receipt or some type of cheap glossy paper. Zero looks equally as mystified at the message engraved to the small fragment of paper.

"Well, let's find out."

Zero tries to reach out for the folded paper, but Kaname steadily keeps it at a height the silverette can't reach—not even when he has to go through the embarrassing measures of standing on his tip toes, "Asshole, where did you even get that?"

"It fell from your pocket. It's funny you are literally clueless of the functioning world out there, isn't it?"

Zero ignores the insult, and tries to grab the paper from Kaname's grasp. Kaname opens the folded paper at height beyond Zero's reach and opens it. Zero pushes Kaname to grab the paper and finally read the mystery message. He doesn't achieve his goal in mind, so he turns his back to Kaname and ends up being vertically spooned by the taller brunette. Zero doesn't notice the position he put himself into, but Kaname seemed to be very aware of the distance between his crotch and the silverette's behind.

Zero held onto Kaname's forearm to flip the paper into a position where he can read the message for himself, and finds himself confused at the content. It was just a bunch of letters which may have constructed a name if he had only paid longer attention and numbers that could have constructed someone else's phone number right below it. However, the silverette remains oblivious over the value of the content. Zero pushes himself out of the position as the genuine confusion reflects in the silverette's expression, "I don't get it. Is that a code or something?"

Kaname looks even more amused than before as he leans closer to Zero, gradually lowering his hands onto Zero's back pockets. He uses his left hand to slip in the piece of paper. Zero freezes in shock at the intrusive hand but snaps out of his reverie and pushes the other man away when he feels the offensive limb stay and squeeze places they shouldn't be.

"I'll see you soon," Kaname says as he turns his back and walks out of the library.

An attractive pink hue creeps up the velvet white skin of the silver-haired man as Zero is left at the middle of the library, face pink and trembling with anger and embarrassment. Yuuki conveniently walks back to where Zero was, carrying a book; and looking concerned at the disposition of the silver-haired man. Zero doesn't talk about it. He just walks away and raises his hand to wave goodbye, and to warn Yuuki not to follow him any further.

* * *

Zero had been walking beside Yuuki towards their default lunch spot. The shorter girl had been chattering her day's worries away to Zero, to which he didn't listen wholly but paid enough attention to catch a few sentiments. Zero grunts in affirmation every now and then to assure the brunette that he's listening or picking up a few words here and there.

That morning, Zero woke up—feeling completely rejuvenated. Yesterday's events went buried in the darkest confines of his mind. He continued his regular morning routine and walks out his flat with the clear intent of avoiding a certain dark-haired individual who had been inconveniently getting more involved with his day to day activities. Everything had been falling into plan for the first half of the day as there had been a grand total of 0 appearances made by wine-haired older brothers to best friends for the first half of the day.

Zero stops tuning out Yuuki's talkative mouth with his own thoughts, so that he wouldn't have to be reprimanded by the shorter brunette yet again. Yuuki doesn't even notice when the silver-haired man actually starts paying attention. That's when Zero realizes that maybe Yuuki wasn't even talking to him, that most of her rants were just soliloquies and odes to herself.

"Zero?"

Zero catches the inquiring tone of the brunette girl, "Why?"

"What happened yesterday with my brother? I mean you have the whole four months ahead of you but I just want to check on how it's all working out."

Zero ponders over what to tell Yuuki. The dark-haired girl patiently waits for the silverette's response as she gets two trays for the both of them. Zero contemplates on whether he should just tell Yuuki that he wasn't comfortable with the set up while it's still early enough to do so. But, he eventually went against the thought immediately when he realized doing so would urge Yuuki for answers that indicated truths he wasn't ready to reveal, and lies he hasn't thought about enough to fabricate.

Zero sighs resolutely, and goes with the decision to continue Yuuki's little project. It was just a term, anyway. He has done stranger things that lasted longer than one term, and he survived just _fine._

"We're okay. He's a," Zero pauses to think of an appropriate term that won't give him away and settles for, "cool guy."

Yuuki beams at the silverette's response. She envelopes Zero in a hug. The silver-haired man doesn't necessarily reject the hold but resorted to awkwardly pat the shorter girl's back. He felt strange that his life was slowly bouncing back to its ordinary routine. It was as if he was slowly absorbing the recent events as ordinary occurrences—especially the return of a guy from his past that he would appreciatively bury in the deepest pits of his brain. It wasn't necessarily a _return_ because Kaname Kuran has always been present for his entire stay in the university—and the only difference is that he is now very much aware of Zero's presence and his affiliation with the dark-haired man's sister.

The week quickly ends at a bat of an eyelash. Zero eats lunch with Yuuki most times of the week like usual. He'd attend lectures and excel effortlessly at some subjects. The cycle of tertiary education stays still at its unripe stages so all-nighters have not been drawn for term papers and exams. His college life gradually resumes its natural pace but Zero feels as if there was something off, something akin to calm before the storm.

As the days pass, tales of Kaname's sexual exploits hadn't been as updated as it used to be. It wasn't exactly like Zero had been keeping track, but when the college rumor mill is so faded—even the slightest gossips should prove to be interesting content. To add to that, Zero hasn't seen the dark-haired man for three days already. _Strange._

* * *

Tell me what you thought about the chapter in the review section. Review and favorite if you haven't yet. :)


	5. Crossroads

Thanks a plenty to everyone who read the most recent chapter, especially those who reviewed: **kuroh, Kai Hoshizuki, irmina, mar1711,** and **ben4kevin**! You are my favorite people.

* * *

It's a Monday again and Zero is on his way to his first class which comparatively starts at a very early timeslot. It's one of those classes where he really doesn't know anyone so he has to put more effort in learning the lessons. Ironically enough, his first class is on the Philosophy of Death, which is what he feels very strongly about as of that moment in time: _Dying—_ basically because of the really early schedule, mostly because it is a _Monday._

Zero lazed across the walkway towards his building, finding more comfort in the fact that he wasn't the only student who wasn't eager to start the week with a morning class, as he found more students both walking and looking like survivors from a Zombie apocalypse. The situation actually made him feel infinitely better, rejuvenating him slightly as he paced faster towards the direction of his class which was thankfully at the first floor.

Upon entering the small classroom, Zero found someone else sitting on his seat. The seats weren't necessarily assigned per student. There wasn't a seat plan because they weren't in high school anymore (even if some teachers actually preceded with the horrible idea of seat plans), but when someone sits long enough on a certain chair, there's bound to be a silent agreement of whose chair that was going to be.

Feeling unbelievably cranky, Zero approached the person on his seat and grabbed onto the seated man's shoulder as a warning. He wasn't able to see how the stranger's actual appearance. If he had, then the silver-haired man would've thought twice about approaching the seated individual.

"That's my seat." Zero remarked; his eyes still hazy and unfocused, his mind away from the situation.

Zero's sleepiness had eventually dissipated when a large figure overshadowed the silverette's. The silver-haired man wasn't even a short person, so the person standing tall in front of him had to be _really tall_ and maybe a tad bit too bulky for his comfort.

* * *

Kaname was walking with his friend to his first class of the day, which naturally wasn't held that morning but there were complications that had intervened with the convenience of his regular class. The professor had to reschedule two weeks' worth of classes to make room for a university-wide event that primarily included business and economics majors.

Along his way, he met paths with a close friend which could arguably be his best friend had he actually had time to think about such trivial labels. His light-haired friend smiled at him in acknowledgment as they walked the same pathway—his heading to the lecture hall, while his light-haired companion would follow the same route but go straight to a homely coffee house a few blocks away from campus grounds.

Kaname was about to enter the lecture hall when his friend stopped him from stepping away for one moment by holding onto the dark-haired man's shoulder. As he was pulled back, Kaname steadied himself by one foot to turn and face his smiling companion. After years of knowing his childhood friend, Kaname had already known the exact facial expression of the light-haired man's face when he smiles out of courtesy. He, especially knows the how to differentiate a polite smile from genuine amusement, "I met Zero Kiryu."

* * *

"Are you Zero Kiryuu?"

Zero immediately felt intimidated by both the large presence and size of the man trying to converse with him. The silver-haired man was forced to look up at the rustic-haired man's unwavering gaze as he wasn't able to register the inquiry directed to him. His mind was only filled with mantras and variations of _I'm fucked. I'm fucked. I'm fucked. I'm fucked._

The taller man stares back at Zero, his face flattened by indifference but his eyes opening windows to his soul. There seems to be longing and, dare Zero be the one to point it out, admiration hidden beneath the indifference constructed by his façade. Zero finally catches up with the taller man when the latter repeats his first statement, "Are you Zero Kiryuu?"

Zero felt threatened to answer and pondered on whether he really had to answer to the likes of the gargantuan man in front of him. He's not really the type to let other people walk over him. A quick meeting of the eyes tells Zero that he is wrong about his predisposed judgment. Beneath the rough exterior is the taller man's soft gaze directed at Zero, so the silver-haired nods in confirmation, "Who's asking?"

The taller man doesn't address the question, and asks his own instead, "Did you get my note?"

Zero takes a good look at the taller man's face, but he doesn't remember the exact instance that he had seen the rustic-haired man. What's alarming is that the other could easily justify their acquaintance because of a note that was slipped onto Zero's. After realizing that the two of them managed to garner too much attention from the others in class, Zero grabbed the taller man's hand to talk to the latter without interruption or people easily eavesdropping on them.

"Are you sure that I'm the one you're really looking for?"

Kain nods in reply and repeats the same question, "Did you get my note?"

Zero furrows his brow at the question. He doesn't exactly remember the taller man explicitly giving him a written note of any sort, "I don't remember, but um, hey! I'm Zero Kiryu!"

Zero offers his hand and Kain stares at the polite gesture, but reciprocates nonetheless and takes the hand as he introduces himself as well, "Kain Akatsuki."

Zero nods awkwardly because his acquaintance wasn't doing anything to alleviate the unsettling aura that enveloped their encounter. He tries to think up of what to say but Kain beats him to it as the latter pulls out a phone and gives it to Zero.

Zero takes the gadget at hand and sees that the numerical keyboard is immediately on the screen so he gets the idea that maybe the other guy wanted to get his number. Zero inquired just to make sure, "Should I put my number here?"

Kain nodded, fidgeting a little under scrutinizing gaze of the shorter man. Zero almost found the action cute but mostly endearing, because it wasn't appropriate to label men who are much taller and muscular than you as _cute_. Without second thought, the silver-haired man puts down a phone number onto his acquaintance's phone.

"Here you go!" Zero exclaims as he gives back the taller man's phone and walks back to his class room before waving his hands to bid farewell. Kain, on the other hand, was left staring at his phone—slightly dumbfounded at how easy it was to get the silver-haired man's number. The shorter man could probably be two things: really easy or really naïve. The odds were all pointing towards the latter of the two.

* * *

This immediately caught Kaname's attention, as his scattered attention had finally refocused and embedded itself onto his crescent-eyed companion, "You met _who_? _"_

The usual straight-laced and generally unaffected expression of the dark-haired man had slowly morphed into a less casual expression. Takuma smiled wider at the unusual bewilderment ghosting his friend's face and remarked, "Kaname, I know you're not deaf."

"Yes, I am _not_ deaf but I have to hear it again to know I heard right."

Takuma's face toned down from his wide smile, an apathetic expression replacing his usual blissful expression as he crossed his arms and said, "You know what I just said. We can talk about him later at lunch."

Kaname didn't look as if he was considering the offer at all which puzzled the blonde hair man greatly because not too long ago, the silver-haired beauty had been the subject of most of Kaname's drunken rants…and then he realized why exactly, "Don't tell me…"

Kaname seemed lost at the insinuation Takuma was hinting at, "Don't tell you what?"

" _The_ model student, Kaname Kuran, is going to cut class for second-hand information on Zero Kiryu?"

Kaname felt a tinge of red ghost the apples of his cheeks at the suggestiveness of how his light-haired friend had said it, but he couldn't exactly deny, to himself at least, that it was exactly the situation at hand. By exterior, however, Kaname was a tad bit too prideful in just accepting such depreciatory comments, "It's not exactly the first time, you know."

The ghost of a smile slowly running itself over Takuma's devious expression as the blonde haired man playfully jabs at Kaname, "Whatever you say, I'm going to Café Maria."

The silent 'follow me if you want to hear more' had been communicated as Kaname found himself unwittingly following his light-haired friend to the not too distant coffee place.

* * *

"So, you went here with him out of pure coincidence?"

Takuma hummed a little and sent a look at Kaname then held onto his mug to stare at its fluid contents slowly settle from its spiral circulation caused by the stirring done by the blonde not too long ago. Kaname catches _the look_ and understands what it actually meant from years of being around the light-haired individual.

Contrary to popular belief, his close childhood friend isn't much of a saint as most would perceive him as. The smiles were usually just facades to encapsulate and slightly conceal the real deviant that had lived inside his blonde haired friend for too long. In fact, Kaname could instantly recall a moment when he was immediately blamed for a deed which Takuma had both done and admitted on doing. But, in all honesty and by Kaname's own experience, he had somehow felt foolish for not being able to detect the devious character beneath that sparkly prince charming exterior. He knew that there was always a tragic flaw to every perfect character.

Kaname leaned back at the soft back-rest of his booth and crossed his arms at the idea of luring in the silver-haired man the same way his friend had done. The dark-haired man gets stuck at an expression of contemplation while his companion only smiles without even looking at the emotions fluttering on his friend's face because he just knows what's running in the mind of one Kaname Kuran and he also knows the expressions such feelings may trigger. Takuma re-addresses his friend to start a new conversation, "He's easy to lure when distracted."

This catches Kaname's attention as his gaze immediately draws up to the smiling individual happily sipping his coffee in front of him. But, something doesn't seem to click quite right, "Are you after him as well?"

Takuma leans back from his seat at the question and releases his mug down the table. His hands stroke his chin in a show of contemplation. Kaname's gaze doesn't falter from the light-haired man despite the innocuous façade. When Takuma decides upon an answer he puts his arms in front of him, with an elbow propped on the table positioned right beneath his face as he leaned forward to Kaname's direction, "Well, I can say that he's a _very attractive_ individual who's also vulnerable as hell, which is a total plus, but…" Takuma shifts his gaze as if surveying his surroundings, "I'll think about it."

Kaname doesn't seem satisfied with the answer so he leans backwards, one leg crossing another. His body language starts presuming a less comfortable and more cautious stance. Takuma notices the shift in position and comments, "If that's not a good enough answer for you then I'm sorry, Kaname. I'm not part of _that_ crowd and I won't go through lengths just to please you."

Kaname accepts the answer, and uncrosses his arms and flattens his legs but he doesn't lean forward to normal position. Takuma smiles back, his classic look of virtuousness and sincerity resurfaces as he grabs the handle of the cup to play with his beverage again. The dark-haired man notices the quick recovery and replies, "I'll accept that for now but you'll have to answer a question."

Takuma catches the serious tone underlining the other man's proposition and pays close attention to what Kaname has to say, but doesn't necessarily look up to meet the dark-haired man's gaze, "I'm listening."

Kaname tried to recall what was written in the crumpled piece of paper, "Who is Kain Akatsuki?"

* * *

Yuuki had been lying on her bed, surfing the promoted websites from her newsfeed and being every bit the preppy college girl without a legitimate social, romantic, or party life should be—awake during early hours and spending mornings with frigid and emotionless however very practical and useful everyday gadgets. Today's chosen platform of _fun_ was her phone.

Yuuki was peacefully skimming through a DIY gallery when her phone buzzed and a banner showed up on her phone with a message from an unknown number. She immediately clicked the banner to redirect her to her messages which wasn't really much of an addition to her mediocre messaging threads which only contained six intermittent conversations with actual people and not communication companies who just sent you piles of messages to charge you later on.

 _Hi._

Yuuki read the message with the critical eye. If someone would send that short of a message that should mean that there would've been prior interaction or even just a simple introduction between them. She didn't necessarily remember anyone asking for her number beyond those life-sucking student expos that the university arranged. Not too long after, Yuuki received a follow-up text.

 _It's Kain._

 _You didn't really ask for my number so I thought I should text you earlier so you won't forget me._

Now, Yuuki was confused. She didn't remember giving her number to anyone named Kain. In fact, she didn't even remember meeting anyone notably new past her freshman year. Her phone vibrated again.

 _Hi? I'm sorry. Am I too direct?_

Yuuki really felt sorry for the stranger because the other person may have gotten the wrong number, and would have lost touch with a love interest all because of a small fluke. Yuuki started typing a polite reply to the stranger when she realized that she had read receipts enabled. While typing up the message, Yuuki remembered a very identical experience that she had and that experience involved a certain silver-haired individual who, by sheer memory of his schedule, was probably just dismissed from his morning class.

Deleting her entire message, she immediately called her silver-haired friend as she stood up from her position—ready to blast her best friend's ears out. He would eventually forgive him for the potential ear-shattering experience. When the ringing stopped, Yuuki was ready to scream out her friend's name when a familiar message played out.

" _Hey it's not Zero. Don't leave a message."_

Yuuki grunted and redialed the number. This time, the silverette's phone was picked up after two rings which told her that this wasn't going to be her best friend's crappy voice message again. Zero seems to have known already the reason for the call by saying, "So, I'm guessing he started contacting you already?"

Yuuki calmed her nerves, reminding herself not to explode at her best friend; because she knew that the latter very likely wouldn't even hesitate putting the phone down and she would also eventually forgive him for doing so. She replies with a civilized answer instead of just shouting, "Zero, you're making the poor guy think he has a chance and that's worse than actually turning him down, you know?"

The other line goes silent for a few seconds before Zero starts talking again, "Well, he literally just popped out of nowhere and asked for my number. It was instinctual self-preservation."

"At the cost of your best friend's privacy?!" Yuuki tried to retaliate.

Zero laughs and remarks, "I feel like I've heard this conversation before, haven't you?"

Yuuki feels lost at the implication of his silver-haired friend. She goes back to her bed, and this time takes a seat with her back on the headboard instead of laying down on, "I really don't."

"Grassy plains, Big brother, psychoanalyze, GPA…do those words ring any proverbial bells in your head?"

The brown-haired girl remembers the exact conversation and unconsciously hits her heads backwards at the sheer reminder of her term-long project for extra credit, "It's not—okay, I'm just gonna ask you if you've had any progress with my older brother."

Zero doesn't reply which causes the line to go silent for a really long drawn minute. Yuuki senses the lack of an appropriate response immediately and informs her silver-haired best friend, "Okay, I'll set up a meeting—," Zero cuts Yuuki and manages to slip in a few syllables of refusal but the dark-haired girl doesn't take any of it and continues, "this Friday and I'll send _Kain_ your real number. Goodbye, Zero."

Yuuki ends the call and gets a sudden boost of power from just really knocking down Zero and his poor excuses to run out of his social life. She edges a little bit forward to fall back lying down into the soft mattress and texts the Kain guy a friendly text and redirect to Zero's number. At the same time, she also receives a message from one of her freshmen blockmates and current classmate on her research class saying that the class meeting for the day is cancelled to be counted as a research break.

Yuuki screamed a loud "yes!" before returning to her Facebook surfing DIY picture gallery, feeling more rejuvenated than ever.

* * *

Takuma looks around him before leaning forward and resting his forehead on his interlaced hands. The light-haired man then rests his chin after surveying his surroundings from his previous position, and starts explaining to his dark-haired companion, "Well, I'm not sure what much I can disclose."

Kaname doesn't take the discouragement to heart and leans forward to normal position. He nods in affirmation and replies, "I'll take what I can."

Takuma smiles, an unspoken retort dancing at the tip of his tongue. The comment doesn't translate into words but Kaname hears it. The intangible semaphore between two old friends resurfaces, then Takuma starts speaking in comprehensible language as he stares into nothing in particular—very likely visualizing the subject at hand, "Well, for one, he works here in Café Maria. He's an only child. He has a close relative living with him inside the campus. He's tall, but he's gentle—very likely to have been a family influence."

Kaname furrows his brows at how the light-haired man had casually analyzed their person of interest but shrugs not too long after. Takuma takes this as a signal to continue his musings, "He's a morning person, classically trained to undergo routine daily management. He is also very _in touch_ with the natural world: less deductive, and more heuristic by intellectual pursuit. He's very, how do you say it, _dominant_ in personality. Good mental health, and physical health—no, _very good_ physical health. Do you want me to say more?"

Kaname nods after taking in the bits and pieces that his light-haired friend had provided him with, trying to construct a mental image despite the vague pieces of the puzzle. Takuma smiles widely—his eyes reduced to crescent moons, completely giving a cunning vibe despite the guiltless appearance. The light-haired man speaks, "He likes cats; and evidently, he also likes Kiryuu-kun which by regular Japanese standards is a _cat._ "

"How did you even know _that_?"

At the question, the tips of Takuma's lips deepen as he looks at the dark-haired man with a complacent yet flat expression, "Which one?"

Kaname grunts and replies, "You know which one."

"Call it instinct, really."

* * *

Zero locks his phone and places it on his pocket; after his best friend closes a one-sided deal and ends the call. He grunts loudly at his situation which was the total opposite of the good day Yuuki was probably having. Sighing in resignation, Zero takes a seat at the nearest chairs as he tries to think up of a good excuse to tell the tall muscly guy who could totally annihilate him in _seconds._

A familiar voice calling out his name snaps the silver-haired man out of his reverie and he recognizes that voice so well it was horrible to be able to identify an individual by mere voice only despite the very a very recent brief encounter. And, Zero could just feel it. The heaviness of the air approaching him; the atmospheric pressure of one existential presence inching closer towards the other; and the hand he didn't notice earlier but was currently resting on his shoulder.

* * *

The next chapter which was originally supposed to be the seventh chapter is really long because it was to supposed to be a _seventh chapter special_ for the reason that the longest fiction I've written has stopped at the count of six chapters. Hopefully, this doesn't But, anyway, tell me what you think in a review: did you like it or did you loathe it? Who do you think our mystery man is? Thanks for reading, and until the next installment! :)


	6. Unison

Special thanks to **perfectly flawed woman, Kitty-chan99, Riddikuluss, mar1711, kmbanas, Kai Hoshizuki, irmina, Chaos, and ben4kevin**! Sorry if updates are lagging; classes have resumed and I guess that's pretty self-explanatory. I'm stuck in a chapter near the end. I'm trying to make the loose ends meet so that I can finally finish the story heh.

* * *

The hand was gradually removed from Zero's shoulder which caused the silver-haired man to release a little tension. The temporary loosening up was eventually proven ineffective as a light-haired man stuck his head instead on the silverette's shoulder in a teasing manner.

Zero sighed at the childish action and pushed the head away from his shoulder none-too-gently. His light-haired companion didn't seem too anticipate the action as the silver-haired man's hands met the other man's forehead to push the offending body part away from his comfort zone.

"No, Aidou, I am not in the mood."

This seemed to have set off the sunshine blonde for a moment. The silver-haired man had assumed that the other person had left him alone. But, the novelty was short-lived as a few seconds past the remark, the sunny blonde had resorted to a more intimate approach when Aidou had leaned closer and rested his forehead on the sitting man's shoulder with his arms wrapped tightly around the small waist of his silver-haired companion.

"You're _never_ in the mood," Aidou remarks from his position, his grip not faltering from its tight disposition. Zero struggles against the restrictive hold but finds his efforts useless as the blonde man's arms never loosen despite his thrashing.

Zero retorts, "Precisely. I don't want you near me at any time of the day."

"You don't want me near—," Aidou's reply was cut when he felt the vibration from the silver-haired man's phone. Both their attentions were immediately redirected to the intervening vibration. The blonde hair man's arms loosened to grab the phone from the silverette and, by habit, cross more personal boundaries and completely disregard the other's personal space.

Zero immediately took the opportunity to release himself from the blonde man's constrictive grip. Unbeknownst to the silverette, Aidou was able to grab his phone in the process of the silver-haired man pushing himself out of the blonde man's arms. Zero felt a small bout of gratification until he realized that he was missing a familiar weight on his pocket. The silver-haired man had immediately found the small device on the hands of the smiling blonde in front of him.

Aidou immediately raised his hands to put the silverette's phone out of his reach. By normal circumstances, this wouldn't have worked because Aidou had the same height as Zero, but luckily today, the blonde man was wearing business attire or in other words—dress shoes which added a good two inches to his height while the silverette was wearing mere sneakers.

Zero immediately tried to reach for his phone, but miscalculated the difference and height and was only left to reach out in vain for his mobile phone. While the silverette trying to reach out and grab the small gadget, Aidou was able to get a feel of the silver-haired man's body pressed against him. Upon the bodily contact, Aidou remarked his observations, "You know, I never really realized this but you're really," Aidou stops to think of an appropriate word, "lithe."

Zero disregards the comment as the blonde's tactic to catch the silverette off-guard despite it being a genuine observation. The phone vibrates again and only Aidou hears the abrupt fluctuation by the small mobile device. As programmed, the phone lights up and shows a phone number and a short preview of the person's message. Aidou turns the mobile phone to face him downwards; and squints as he stares at the number displayed on the screen with a critical eye. The number seemed familiar.

The phone vibrates again, and lights up the screen with the new message. That's when Aidou realizes the identity of the silverette's texting buddy. He looks back at Zero, who doesn't seem to notice or merely ignores the expressions fluttering through the blonde man's façade.

Aidou asks with a less jubilant tone, "How do you know my cousin?"

Zero stops his movements at the question, picking up the less happy tone from the blonde haired man. He looks up, and amethyst meets an electric blue, "Your cousin?" and adds, "I don't know _who_ you're referring to, but you're the only 'Aidou' I know."

"Akatsuki," Aidou mutters. Zero replies with a confused look. The blonde man reiterates the name, " _Akatsuki Kain?"_

Zero furrows his brows at the quick change in demeanor and tone from his usually unreasonably ecstatic and jumpy acquaintance. It wasn't necessarily strange since he had only met the blonde man few times during a few university events, so there was bound to be a lot of things about the other that were still in the dark. The silver-haired man replies truthfully nonetheless, "I met him earlier this morning, I think."

Aidou seems to accept the answer and tucks in the silver-haired man's phone in his pocket. Zero naturally attests to the blonde man's actions; but said reaction only ends up ignored as Aidou immediately grabs the other's hand in a tight grip, pulling the silverette into the direction he's heading, "You're having lunch with me."

Zero tries to go against Aidou by pulling his hand with another, but only ends up being dragged away more forcefully. The silverette protests against the blonde, "And, what if I don't want to?"

Aidou pauses to think about what he could do to the silverette, and eventually smiles in self-assurance at the reminder that he actually has something of importance owned by the silver-haired man in his pocket, "I won't give you your phone back."

Now, Zero didn't really know the blonde man that much so he didn't know if the latter was serious, but judging from the tone of the other's voice which was eerily delighted with various undertones of creepy; it seemed as if his companion was taking threats very seriously. Zero resigned to his fate and merely followed the direction his captor was holding him to. This doesn't cause Aidou's grip to loosen, but the blonde man smiles at the action of submission as he makes his way to the university cafeteria.

* * *

Takuma takes a quick glance at his watch and appears buzzed. The light-haired man smiles at Kaname apologetically and bids his goodbyes, "I think we're way past our time. I'll have to go somewhere in about…five. I'll see you around, Kaname."

Takuma stands up from his seat and exits the café calmly. As he goes past the transparent door of the café, a tall dark blonde man catches his attention. The latter entering the café at the same minute he was leaving. Thus, the rattling of the chimes hanging by the entrance only resonated once in the relatively isolated confines of the café. The light-haired man smiles at the sheer instance of coincidence of it all before leaving matters alone.

Kaname paid no attention to the singular sound of the chimes as he leaned backwards to his seat and contemplated on the identity of the silver-haired man's suspected suitor. He had to know who Takuma was talking about, but from what the light-haired man told him earlier—it seemed as if their person of interest wasn't inside the café, leaving his light-haired friend complacent enough to talk about his exhaustive speculations.

A server from the café asks permission to get the empty mug at his table and he bats a hand in confirmation without even taking a look at the person serving him. Had Kaname looked even for just a moment, and rid himself of his overthinking state for a few seconds—maybe he would have connected a few trails and ended with the realization of the identity of the man serving him, especially with a small name tag embedded on the chest of the man's working attire.

Kaname remains ignorant of the other's actions and walks out of the café, causing the chimes to clatter and ring yet again, and continues his path towards the long walkway within the university to get some ambience and time to think. He doesn't listen long enough to hear the common courtesy of the server cleaning up his table speak their routine phrase, "Thank you for coming."

* * *

"What's your passcode?"

Zero shook his head at the question as he crosses his arms and glares at the blonde man. The silverette doesn't address the question verbally, however, as he continues his unnerving gaze directed at his blonde acquaintance. Aidou doesn't exactly take the non-verbal rejection to heart as he reasons out, "Hey, I bought you lunch! The least you could do is telling me your passcode."

Zero tipped his head at the logic behind the blonde's argument as he was put out of his silent treatment to reply begrudgingly, "I don't owe you anything. I didn't ask you to buy me lunch."

Aidou shrugged and pulled out the silver-haired man's phone while he remarks, "Well, if you say so. I'm just gonna keep guessing the passcode until this phone locks for…a year or so?"

That immediately caught Zero's attention, so the silver-haired man quickly tried to get the phone from the blonde man's hands; but unluckily for Zero, Aidou had anticipated such actions and put the phone away from the silverette's reach. The blonde man stood up and raised his hand above his head. Zero was about to stand up and reach out but stopped midway through when he realize it was going to be the same banter they had outdoors, so the silverette goes back to his seat and resumes his one-sided glaring contest with the blonde man.

Aidou grins manically at the resignation that had dawned upon the silverette which had been apparent in Zero's actions, especially the glare he was giving the blonde man. Aidou kept his arm raised above him as he tried to provoke the silverette once more because it was so fun to see the silver-haired man put in a situation he didn't seem very comfortable with, "So, you're giving up? The little—," Aidou pauses his teasing when he feels someone else grab the phone from his position. He immediately turned back to who had the audacity to get the phone from and who was actually tall enough to get it from above him, but was surprised to look back and find his friend who was in all actuality shorter than him holding the silverette's phone.

Zero stands up from his seat when the new person in his personal bubble had entered the scene. Aidou was still stuck in the trance of trying to figure out how his phone was grabbed from him by someone who was marginally lesser in height. The intruder points to a chair to show the blonde man how he managed to nab the phone.

Aidou seemed weary of his friend for a fleeting moment as the latter tries to decode the passcode. After two tries however, his friend manages to unlock the phone. Aidou is then handed the phone as his shorter companion takes a seat beside the blonde to stare at the silverette across him. The blonde man then proceeds to inconspicuously send a message to his cousin and sneakily add a contact as well while the silverette had been too preoccupied with the new person on the table.

Zero had been frozen for the entire exchange, not really understanding what was happening. He goes back to his seat after the other person hands Aidou his phone for reasons he doesn't know. Eventually, he becomes the target of the soulless stare by the dark-haired person who just literally waltzed into his table and figuratively, his life.

The new occupant offers a hand to Zero, reaching out across the table to the extent his arms can provide him. His gaze remains unwavering and Zero could almost say that the dark-haired acquaintance did not even blink once if he had only stopped avoiding the invasive gaze. The unwavering scrutiny of the dark-haired man stays on the silver-haired man, as if trying to coerce the other into staring back at him by mere gaze, "Shiki Senri"

Zero hears a faint voice—almost as quiet as whisper but not quite. The silverette immediately assumes that the sound came from the person across him offering his hand. He doesn't quite hear nor understand the small stringing of the alphabet so he gives the other a strange look to show that he doesn't understand what he just said.

The brunette across him immediately understands the non-verbal communication and doesn't draw his hand away from the table as he reiterates, "Shiki Senri."

Zero doesn't feel comfortable introducing himself to the cryptic stranger but decides against his discomfort out of courtesy because the other person didn't seem all too weary of giving out his name. It wasn't as if he was surrendering his identity or anything of that sort…right? The silverette meets the hand on the table half ways to tug it a little before introducing himself, "Kiryuu Zero."

Aidou finally takes a seat and erases all traces of his activity as he hands the phone back to Zero. The silverette takes the phone without a word and stands up to leave the table, but the blonde stops him from his retreat by saying, "I changed the lock code. Don't go too soon."

The blonde's taciturn seatmate nods in agreement, and the silverette is forced again to sit back on the table. He glares at Aidou again and remarks, "So, how long do you intend to keep me here?"

Aidou takes a quick peek at his watch and replies, "Just a little long enough."

The silver-haired man raises a brow at the vague answer but the blonde man doesn't clarify any further. Zero stays back on his chair, crossing his arms yet again in instinctual self-preservation and resuming the one-sided glare contest with the happy blonde.

Shiki leans over to Aidou's side to whisper in the blonde's ear, and the latter only smiles and nods in confirmation. Zero finds the exchange as strange and _scheming_ but doesn't ask any further, knowing that the two won't give him any satisfying answers at all. The blonde's dark-haired companion wasn't the type to talk but Zero was pretty sure Aidou already had the conversational span of at least two people.

A few minutes pass with Zero still glaring at the blonde man. Aidou, by Zero's observance, had been surveying the place, looking for someone. Every few minutes the blonde man would look at the direction of the door and all around the vicinity, seemingly searching for someone. Zero wasn't sure who the blonde man was looking for but if that new person would be the reason that Aidou would let him go finally then he'd be interested at the identity of said man as well—but that doesn't necessarily weaken the glare directed to the blonde man.

While lost in his hateful gaze, Zero doesn't notice the familiar screech by drawing of the chair. He doesn't notice Shiki standing up to reach out and grab onto the silverette's arms. By that unanticipated action, Zero flinched a little from his seat at the sudden intrusion. The dark-haired man keeps his gaze locked on the silverette, pools of celeste unwavering in its scrutiny, "Show me your palms."

The creepy vibe transmitted from the dark-haired man gradually took a more disturbing route with the strange string of words the man across the silverette had uttered. Out of caution, Zero didn't do as told but his hands were eventually pulled into a more preferable position for the brunette when the latter had effortlessly unlatched the silver-haired man's arms with unexpected strength. Zero went along with the seemingly bored brunette who was just staring at the silverette's upturned palms. The silver-haired man decided that having the third person in the table stare at his palms rather than read his soul through invasive eye contact was better.

A gleam of recognition passed Aidou's eyes when he had found his perennially stoic-faced cousin making his way towards their table. The blonde man momentarily shook his head as to not put his cousin's attention on him and see how the silverette would interact with the taller man. Aidou glanced to his side and found the silver-haired man entertaining his dark-haired friend as the latter stared at the former's palms.

While Zero was trying to guess what his emotionless acquaintance was observing with his palms, he hears a faint but ever present heavy breathing—or panting? The silver-haired could definitely sense someone right behind him from the shadow being cast and enveloping his figure whole. A voice calling out his name confirms his suspicions, "Zero?"

Zero turns to see the person behind him, and was surprised to find the same person he was speaking with earlier that day. Thankfully, the name still hasn't slipped from his registry, "Kain, right?"

* * *

Along his way, Kaname pulls up his phone to call his younger sibling after formulating a plan in his head to meet the silverette yet again. He presses speed dial and not too long after, a well-acquainted voice transmits from the other line, "Nii-san?"

Kaname smiles at his sister and ceases his steps as he stands by the side of the hallways, "Yeah, Yuuki, I was hoping you could have lunch with me after your class?"

The other line had been silent for a few moments, but the dark-haired girl replied eagerly, "Sure! Okay! I'll just text Zero that I won't have lunch with him for today."

Kaname raises a brow at the response, contemplating on whether he should surprise the silver-haired beauty again. He was snapped out of his reverie, however, when Yuuki had immediately ended the call after a few moments of Kaname not reciprocating any form of conversation.

Without second thought, Kaname walks his way towards the direction of Yuuki's classroom. He had already memorized his younger sister's schedule so it wasn't hard navigating himself towards the room. And, if his memory was right, Yuuki's class should end in ten minutes which was approximately the same time he had to walk there.

* * *

Kain took a seat beside the silverette without asking, assuming that he was welcomed company—and he was, mostly. However, the person who invited him to the table wasn't quite the same person he had expected him to be. Zero feels a restrictive feeling being surrounded by a bunch of people who probably knew each other for a long time and at the same time, acquainted with him very recently and blackmailed him into staying in one place.

Zero tries to ease the awkwardness by trying to spike up a conversation with arguably the most normal out of the three of his companions, "So, what're you doing here?"

Kain looks at Zero with the slightest alteration in his facial expression showing confusion and responded, "You sent me a text to go here."

Zero reflected the confused look plastered onto the tall man's face. He didn't remember having any access to his phone in the past few minutes that he has been spending with the blonde guy and his sneaking companion. _Wait,_ Zero's attention was abruptly flicked towards Aidou who was clearly engrossed observing their interaction. The blonde had immediately detected the shift in attention of the silverette, so he returns the incredulous look with a haughty grin.

Aidou raised both his hands in surrender, still maintaining the amused expression on his face. He remarked, "Okay! I surrender. It was _me_ who texted you—but I have an explanation."

Zero doesn't verbally ask the explanation. He leans back to his seat, crossing his arms to stare back at the ecstatic blonde. Kain mimicked the silverette's position but doesn't cross his arms as he looks at his blonde cousin expectantly. Aidou primarily feels threatened but shrugs the feeling off like always and continues with a question, "Well, I was just going to ask how long were you gonna keep this a secret from me? No—how long were you gonna keep _him_ a secret from me?"

Kain makes a face—as if he did not understand the question correctly. Zero doesn't budge from his seat and retains his glare at the blonde man across him, waiting for a more satisfying explanation instead of a question but he didn't receive such as Aidou only shut his mouth right after asking the question. Upon realizing that Aidou wasn't going to follow up his statement with anything substantial, he immediately ground against the other person, " _That's_ your explanation?"

Kain lets the silverette speak before adding, " _He's_ not a secret. I just met him a week ago?"

This catches Zero's attention. His head swivels towards the direction of the taller man because he had only remembered meeting him earlier that morning. The silverette unwittingly calls out the allegation, "A week ago?"

Kain returns the questioning gaze. Aidou doesn't seem that far from perplexed as well. Shiki grabs Zero's phone unsuspectingly while the silver-haired man was still caught up in the confusion as he goes to contact a good friend who'd probably be good company while the other people in his table were embodying a very entertaining live drama. Before he could even type up his message, the phone vibrates and shows a text from 'Yuuki'. Shiki doesn't read the message and deletes it instantly for being a nuisance then sends the text his contact while waiting for the best time to sneak the phone back onto Zero's hands.

 _Something interesting is happening. Go here. Bring Pocky. –Shiki_

Zero breaks the silent gaze and exclaims, "Which week ago? _What_?"

Kain brushes his hair back in frustration as he naturally gravitates towards the silverette to fully explicate his claim. However, Aidou interrupts and takes Zero's word over his cousin and confronts Kain to add fuel to the fire, "Yeah! What week ago?"

"I don't think this is any of your business, Aidou," Kain warns as he flashes the blonde a glare before putting his attention back to the silver-haired man who looked very confused about the situation, "And, yes, I did meet you and I left you a note before you left."

"A note?" Zero asks more calmly, after realizing how everything was just literally getting blown out of proportion. Kain nods in response, and Zero tries to trace back the recent events that had been happening in his life until he remembers a certain piece of paper that Kaname took from him, and a mention of the note earlier that day.

Aidou catches onto the subject and jumps in the conversation to exclaim, "You left a note?"

Shiki stays on the sidelines, watching all the revelations unfold until someone taps him from the side, and he turns to find the guest that he invited right behind him smiling gleefully with a box of his favorite sweet treats at hand. Shiki opens his mouth to get his treat and his friend happily complies with feeding the brunette.

"So, where's Rima and what's actually happening here?"

Shiki motions for his seatmate to give him a treat. The latter complies and throws the sweet, to which Shiki catches immediately. As conditioned, the dark-haired man starts divulging the other with answers and the situation at hand, "She has a class, and the unfamiliar face in this crowd is actually Zero. Something's happening."

"Wait, Kuran picked up something from my pocket this one time," Zero muttered as he tried to remember what was in the note. The silverette's gaze travelled around the room while contemplating, but then he notices a figure that wasn't there in the first place sitting next to the dark-haired occupant of the seat beside Aidou. The said figure seemed strangely familiar as well. Thus, Zero was immediately snapped out of his reverie at the recognition of the new face, "Ichijou?"

Kain and Aidou's gaze snapped to the new occupant of the chair in seconds. Shiki pretends to be surprised at the presence of the blonde man beside him but it doesn't produce the same effect because he grabs a piece of the sweets on Takuma's hand before eating the treat casually. Takuma smiles at the attention suddenly directed towards him and bats it off, "Please continue your earlier banter. It was very interesting."

* * *

When Yuuki's class ends, she immediately finds her elder brother which her classmates had found as a spectacle by crowding around the dark-haired man. Kaname immediately catches sight of Yuuki and waves her way to catch the shorter brunette's attention. This doesn't go unnoticed by the girls crowding him as they squeal loudly around Kaname causing the dark-haired man to have some ear damage for a long amount of time.

Kaname smiles at the women around him, easily pushing the ones that were in his way to go to Yuuki. Yuuki watches the entire scene patiently until Kaname walks towards him and guides him towards the cafeteria run by the university. He actually had a different route and a different restaurant to take his sister to, but he realized that it was too far and Yuuki may have already been hungry.

Both walk steadily towards the cafeteria with an unnerving silence governing over them. Kaname doesn't mind the peaceful ambiance but Yuuki was having problems with such noiseless environment so she breaks it by asking her elder brother a question, "So, what made you want to have lunch with me?"

Kaname responds with a pre-made reply, "Well, should I have an excuse to eat with my favorite girl?"

Yuuki doesn't believe Kaname but she doesn't divulge on the matter any further so she just talks about her day instead, knowing that her elder brother would probably just lie about most of the things she'll ask. Kaname may think that she's an innocuous little being of wonder but she _isn't._ She's detected the dark-haired man's lies ever since she had learned that people can lie. Granted, she doesn't always get the truth of the situation from the awareness of the prevarication. So, Yuuki resorted to happily talking about her previous class, how much her professor blatantly hated her, and how her voice was like nails on a chalk board.

Kaname nodded as he listened to his sister, not taking anything she's saying to heart because everything was probably just small talk that she'd forget or bat off sooner or later when she has something new to say. Yuuki continued talking until they had found themselves inside the cafeteria. Even while buying food, she had not stopped talking. Her mouth ceased from its verbal gymnastics once she realized that there were no tables that were free.

Yuuki left her tray at a side and Kaname stayed by that corner while Yuuki had looked for any free tables, but found none. There were free seats but no free tables. She catches sight of familiar silver tresses and that's when her eyes light up in recognition. There was only one silver-haired person in their campus, and she knew that her best friend wouldn't mind an additional two to their table long table of mostly unfamiliar faces.

Yuuki appears from behind Zero and greets the silverette, successfully surprising the silverette who had previously been staring back at the opposite direction. Zero turns his head to address the shorter brunette, as he becomes faced with the grin smothering his best friend's face. Zero raises a brow, but then realizes that he forgot to tell Yuuki that he can't have lunch with her so he tries to explain, but Yuuki cuts him to the talking as she puts her best puppy dog eyes and pleads, "Can we sit here, Zero? Pleeeaaase!"

Zero nods automatically, and Yuuki goes off to her elder brother. Zero feels lightheaded at the sudden influx of people at one time. Kain immediately notices the nauseous feeling overcoming the silverette and doesn't pry on the other's personal bubble to respect his personal space, but this doesn't stop the russet-eyed man beside the silverette from looking at him worriedly. Shiki watches the interaction with assessing eyes. Takuma stays put at one place, holding the box of sweets for his friend as he also watches with great fascination. Aidou comments from the other side of the table, "Was that your girlfriend? You have pretty bad taste, no offense."

"She's not my girlfriend," Zero claims defensively. After realizing how offhanded and defensive he sounded, the silverette continued calmly, "besides, I'm not interested in the opposite sex."

This catches everyone's attention. Aidou's back straightens at the remark, to stare at the apathetic silverette who just literally dropped a bomb and brusquely asked without thinking, "What? So, who was she?"

"She's my best friend."

Aidou slouches at the flat answer and looks away from the silverette while he mutters to himself, "Bo-ring."

Yuuki returns to Zero's table and loudly proclaims their presence. Kaname smiles at the table and finds a good friend amongst one in the crowd. Takuma smiles back and leads his gaze towards the silverette. The tall brunette follows the trail and finds the silver-haired man, completely unaware of his presence. Instead of sitting beside his sister who had taken the seat beside Kain or his close friend, he had instead opted for the seat beside the oblivious silverette.

Shiki quickly caught the devious look on the tall brunette and took this chance to slip back the silverette's phone when the latter is inevitably surprised by the presence of Kaname. Yuuki spikes up a conversation with Takuma and momentarily distracts the two of them from the unfolding situation.

"Hello, Zero," Kaname almost whispers to Zero's ears had it not been heard by the three other people in the table, before settling down beside the silver-haired man. Zero jumps a little at the new occupant of the table, but then it _clicks_ because Yuuki did say earlier that she had company and it was only _now_ that the silverette had actually caught on. Zero turns his head at the dark-haired man who was smiling mischievously and tries to reply as calmly as he can, "Hello, Kuran."

* * *

Tell me in a review your thoughts on the chapter. Favorite and alert if you liked the story and haven't done both yet. Have a great week! :)


	7. Aftermath

I dedicate buckets of gratitude to all those who have favorited this story. Special thanks to these lovely people: **Sungoddess64** , **Kitty-chan99** , **Kai Hoshizuki** , **irmina** , **Chaos** , **ben4kevin** , **Riddikuluss** , and **kmbanas**!

* * *

"Kaname Kuran?!" Aidou exclaims, outwardly impressed at the presence of the famous (arguably infamous) brunette man on the same table.

Kaname decides to humor the bewildered blonde as the silverette beside him blatantly ignores his presence after a begrudging greeting in favor of the russet-eyed man on the other corner of his side. So, he shifts his attention to the ecstatic blonde and responds, "in the flesh."

Aidou remains dumbfounded and speechless while Kaname resumes eating and ignoring the other blonde while eavesdropping at the conversation of the two men beside him. Shiki stands up and taps Takuma on the shoulder as he whispers to the blonde before walking away from the table, "I'm going to Rima."

Takuma nods and continues her conversation with Yuuki, and Shiki walks off the table without anyone noticing. The remaining time was spent with Yuuki and Takuma conversing; Zero getting to know Kain; Kaname eavesdropping on the two men beside him; and Aidou gazing at the dark-haired man from the opposite side of the table in admiration.

Not too long after, Takuma walks it off to go to his class; who is soon tailed by Yuuki after realizing that she also has a class soon enough. Aidou snaps out of his reverie to excuse himself from the group after realizing how he had acted in front of an admired individual. Kain immediately remembers that he was only away for a lunch break from his shift in the café so he leaves as well.

Zero decides to follow the others until he realizes that Aidou hasn't actually told him the altered passcode in his phone. He accidentally presses a button on the small device and the screen lights up to show a familiar cursor that was present on his lock screen whenever he turned off the security measures. So, that would mean…that if he had just been astute enough, he wouldn't have wasted so much time on fake blackmail. Zero grunted at the idiocy of it all.

The entire time, Kaname had been observing emotions flick off and on the silverette's face. The latter probably forgot that he still had someone beside him who was very aware of his frustrations, "So, that's Kain Akatsuki?"

Zero turned his head to Kaname's direction. Despite the brunette's primary suspicions, the silver-haired man had been all too aware of his presence the entire time—this fact being apparent by how the silverette didn't even flinch nor show any signs of shock from his sudden intrusion of his silent soliloquies.

"Were you behind this all along?"

Kaname shook his head and retorted, "Did you even absorb any word I said?"

"Fuck off," Zero responded to the insulting retort as he immediately stood up from his seat to walk out from the smug brunette. Kaname wasn't having any of the silver-haired man's drama as he immediately held onto Zero's arm, effectively stopping the silverette from moving out any further from himself. Zero groaned at the tight grip on his arm and turned to face the other man, but was shocked to find the latter looking back at him with solemn authority.

Kaname's face was devoid of all the playful banter they've been at for so long, and Zero was torn on whether he should remain defiant or follow through and remain on the seat beside Kaname. The decision has already been made when Kaname had spoken or practically _commanded_ Zero to sit beside him. Kaname loosened his grip but never faltered his hold on the silverette, as the latter reluctantly sat beside the dark-haired man.

"So, this is all I have to do to make you listen to me?" Kaname speaks at a low tone, his voice bordering apathetic.

Zero raises his voice to defy the dark-haired man but was quickly shushed before any sound would have left his mouth with a mere look. Kaname holds Zero's chin, to which Zero quickly bats off the offending limb. This greatly amuses Kaname and he smiles at the insolent look on Zero's face.

Kaname stands up and leans closer to whisper in Zero's ear, savoring every syllable spoken, " _You_. _Are_. _Mine_."

The brunette lingers for a few moments in his position; his breaths reverberating in Zero's ears in some fleeting moments before the small hushed sounds slowly dissipate with the departure of the dark-haired man. Zero was left at the table, alone and confused.

* * *

Tuesday quickly passes away, with Zero following his routine finally. He passes by the café to greet Kain and get his morning fix. He sees Takuma around the campus and greets the light-haired blonde, not intending to prolong the interaction. He eats lunch with his best friend. He may or may not have been greeted by the brother of said best friend, but after the rather _aggressive_ approach the other man tried on him, Zero had decided to keep his head low and just pretend not to notice the presence of the tall brunette. He goes back to his home and eats takeout for dinner, alone in his room.

Wednesday comes and he ends up in his literature class with Takuma. Yuuki bails out from the late lunch Zero's schedule would permit him so he ends up eating outside the campus alone in a relatively isolated restaurant. Afterwards, he spends time in the library to finish the 'homework' assigned by his elective literature class. Nothing interesting really happens for the rest of the day. He sees the taller dark-haired man again who he is now sure has noticed him. Zero turns the other way at the sight of Kaname and continues his regular routine. This time, he doesn't eat takeout alone at night. He cooks for his housemates in the rented flat and they all have the dinner together in the usually empty dining area.

Thursday comes and Zero's first class is called off before even leaving his room so he stays in his bed and reads himself an academic book to lull him back to sleep. He eventually wakes up when his best friend texts him about lunch and finding a new place to eat. He replies and stays at his bed in solemn reflection. The small sounds of rain water falling on his window pane. Zero closes his window, but catches a glimpse of a familiar brunette staring up at his window specifically. As his instinct would dictate, Zero immediately glued himself to the wall and away from the view outside when he had recognized the identity of the dark-haired man.

Yuuki cancels their lunch together and tells Zero to just try the restaurant another day. The silver-haired man doesn't complain and cooks for himself out of laziness to leave the flat. When it was time for his next class, Zero heads out from the back door: the one furthest from his room. He doesn't notice a cloaked man's figure standing a few feet away from him, observing his hasty departure.

Friday finally came, which marked three days of successfully ignoring the dark-haired man—a feat for him. After smoothing out the first two classes to start his day and end his academic suffering, he's already inside a Japanese food establishment with his best friend, continuing with their regular lunch break meetups which was actually at 4:00 in the afternoon—but they still insisted to call it lunch.

His brunette companion remains preoccupied with the menu while Zero has his own set down, already deciding on what it is that he wanted to order. He doesn't rush the shorter girl, however, as she peers through the long list of choices in the menu.

The waitress doesn't take too long after Yuuki ushered her onto their table. Once they have ordered, the waitress leaves and gives the amount of time they'd have to wait for the food before leaving with a curtsey, and taking away the two set menus.

Yuuki spikes up the conversation, "How was your week?"

Zero wanted to talk about what happened that Monday, when Kaname had unexpectedly presumed a rather scary façade but he decided against it. He still had a favor to do for his friend, and he didn't want to be the guy who'd ruin the good relationship between the two siblings, "It was okay. My class was cancelled yesterday."

Yuuki heaves out a sigh, and replies with a nod. She was clearly expecting more from the silverette despite the latter's more silent nature. Zero notices the reaction, and immediately knows what it means but he doesn't address the matter nor take things any further. Yuuki decides that she can speak enough for the both of them, "My week was…pretty bad, unlike yours. I mean…wait, ask me why!"

Zero responds in a dead tone, "Why?"

Yuuki doesn't note the teasing intonation of the silverette's voice as she talks about the week's happenings that didn't involve Zero. Zero chose to humor the shorter brunette for once while she talks about everything under the sun, "Um….okay, so last Wednesday when we didn't have lunch together; I actually bailed out because I had to redo this paper for my Gender Studies class because the professor didn't appreciate my criticism on the influence of media on archetypes in society. I got the idea from the internet, don't ask me. He literally told me I had three hours after his class to make or break my grades and I was actually scared for a moment because all my arguments had literally been handpicked from the internet, and it required me _a lot of research_ and you know I'm not one for research…"

Zero stops at that point, forgetting the idea of even humoring the brunette to listen wholly to her rants. Don't get him wrong, Zero actually thought Yuuki's rants were alright, and she always had the tendency to talk for the both of them—but sometimes, it's just too long drawn that it was better if he'd have his own soliloquies during her soap opera-long dramatizations. He doesn't completely shut her out, anyway. He just tones down her volume in favor of more pressing matters.

"Oh, yeah, Zero! I was about to tell you something!"

Zero looks back at the brunette and responds with a questioning gaze. To which, Yuuki replies with a grin and responds verbally, "I was invited to a frat party!"

The silver-haired man looked confused for a moment before realizing why she had broken out the news to him, "I don't think I'm the type of guy for _those_ kinds of parties."

"You'll never know until you try, right?"

"What if I never want to know?" Zero retorts.

Yuuki shakes her head at the smartass remark and reasons out to Zero, "But, Zero! I've never been to a frat party and I think this is pretty safe because Takuma, Aidou and Shiki are going! They're actually regular goers but at least I know a few people?"

"Why don't you go with them?"

"Because they're not as close to me as you? Come on, Zero. Live a little! Pleeeaassee!"

Zero immediately turned away from Yuuki's face, knowing that the other was probably sporting her coercive puppy dog eyes stare and he was so sure that it was going to work on him one way or another, and there was no doubting the fact that he's quickly give in to the pleading look. He sighed and surrendered, "When and where is that _frat party_ supposed to be?"

Yuuki beamed, "Tonight! I can't really jot down the directions but Takuma took me there and I know how to get there from my flat so you can just go to my place by about 8:00 and we can go together."

Upon remembering that Yuuki wasn't exactly alone in her flat, and her housemate was actually the very person he was avoiding; Zero said, "Can you just go to my flat instead?"

The waitress reappeared near their table holding their food, and Yuuki chose to stay quiet for a moment but that didn't erase the confusion on her face at the silverette's proposition. Once the waitress had gone off, Yuuki immediately asked, "Why? It would be harder to get there from your flat."

Zero tried to think up of the best excuse and reasoned out, "I…need to have a second opinion on what to wear."

Yuuki smiled at Zero's response which caused the latter to let out an inner sigh of relief. She was eating up the lie and Zero could only smile awkwardly and guiltily for lying to his best friend yet again.

* * *

So, give me your thoughts on the chapter. Sorry, it's not as exciting as the previous one, but I can guarantee that the next update should be sooner and less dreadful and longer.


	8. The Wrong Side of the Right Bed

If this isn't really your cup of tea, I think it's best if you'd just stop reading.;)

Special thanks to **ben4kevin** , **Riddikuluss** , **Kitty-Chan99** , **Lily of the Valey** , **irmina** , **Marxou** , **Kai Hoshizuki** , **mar1711** , and **fireycloud**!

* * *

Zero had been sitting on a loveseat with a red cup at hand, drinking his disinterest and frustrations away. He had committed to performing one task for the entirety of the celebration and that was to keep watch of Yuuki, but he had already lost the dark-haired girl a few minutes past walking in that door to a bunch of cheerleaders or sorority girls. Take your pick.

The foggy surroundings didn't help Zero's search for the short dark-haired girl, the strange smoky substance was probably from the rented fog machine from across the room. He frankly didn't know the point of putting a fog machine in a party, but he didn't really understand frat parties either so he shouldn't really have a say in all of it.

He felt an imbalance from his seat, which meant there was someone heavy enough to have drawn him down the other side. Thankfully, the fog didn't blur nearby distances. Zero turned to chastise the person sitting beside him, but he didn't exactly see _one_ person take the remaining part of loveseat. It was two people making out whom unfortunately for Zero just fell onto the couch while making out.

Zero made a face and stood up from his seat, verbally commenting on the couple—despite knowing that his voice would drown in the loud music, "Gross. Get a fucking room."

Zero walked over to the spiked punch, his drink really needed a refill, while his mind also needed something to desensitize itself from the mind-numbing party. He kept his head down while walking, not wanting some jock or frat boy to run into him and make talk.

Upon sight of the juice bar, Zero disregards the people all around and pours himself a drink. He notices a silhouette edging closer to his side, and doesn't mind it—thinking the other person was just getting a drink to make it through the party like he was. Contrary to his suspicion, it was actually someone he knew and his slowly disintegrating consciousness was probably making him assume a lot of wrong things.

The silhouette stops beside him and leans back on the counter. Zero points his gaze at the new comer, and _surprise,_ it's Aidou. Zero stares at the blonde to confirm his identity, unwittingly narrowing his half-lidded eyes to get a clearer picture. The alcohol was proving to be very effective in times of need.

Zero notices the figure shake, and smile and break into small chortles. The silverette catches the other person's amused tone, "You're drunk?"

Zero doesn't verbally reply, doesn't feel the need to exhaust his efforts in trying to state any coherent thought; so he goes and drinks from the cup, not removing his stare directed at the blonde. Aidou's amusement doesn't die down as the grin in his face stays put. He grabs Zero by the hand, and the latter doesn't try to work his way out of the grip like how it would usually go.

Zero follows through, more concerned about the drink inside his cup than his own safety.

Zero enters the room and finds a setup that he was too familiar with, "What are we? Fuckin' high school?"

Despite the statement, Zero presumes his 'fuck it' attitude and slips onto a space with Aidou right beside him and a few familiar faces in the small crowd. An empty bottle is at the middle of their small circle and a small glass filled with the contents of the empty bottle is in front of Zero. The same small shot glass was in front of Aidou as well. Zero immediately drunk the small portion of alcohol and replaced the small glass with his plastic cup. Aidou does the same and drinks from the shot glass as he practically cackles at Zero replacing his own with the filled plastic cup.

One stranger in the circle holds on to the bottle and spins it. Zero stares at the bottle spinning, and rests his head on Aidou's shoulder. He doesn't notice the dark-haired man across him who was staring at him; doesn't even get a gist of the presence of the person he's been avoiding for almost a week. Aidou feels surprised over the head on his shoulder, but doesn't exactly bat off the seemingly affectionate act from the silverette.

The game goes on in five spins, and neither Zero nor Aidou has been involved in the dares. Zero sips from his cup every now and then. Up until then, Zero still remains ignorant of the tall brunette's presence. The bottle finally faces Aidou on the sixth spin. The blonde gets a folded sheet from the bowl of dares while trying not to disturb the docile silverette by his shoulder.

 _Make out with the person next to you._

Aidou reads the text written on the sheet. Zero looks down on the paper as well, having the same point of view from Aidou's shoulder. The blonde tries to ask whether the 'person next to him' referred to his left or right side, but Zero cuts the blonde by putting down his drink and dragging the blonde's face down his side from the former's shoulder. Aidou is initially shocked at first from the abrupt action, and Zero is too drunk to even care about decency. The blonde presumes dominance and pulls the silverette closer to him by the waist. Zero gasps at the forceful action but doesn't break away from the kiss as he tries to control the make out session. _Tries._

Zero breaks the kiss by pulling away because of his lack of breath. The group stares at the pair in awe and someone, neither Zero nor Aidou can pinpoint who, comments on how 'hot' it was. Majority of the group cheers for the two. Aidou was still in a state of arousal and shock, so Zero goes and spins the bottle for him. The mouth of the bottle points to another participant who hasn't been involved in the past few spins. Zero follows the trail from the empty bottle and amethyst meets a familiar shade of auburn. The latter doesn't break his gaze as he picks out a piece of paper from the other bowl for truths. He hands the paper to the girl beside him to read the truth for him.

A high-pitched voice broke through the muffled noise from the hallways, "Describe in detail your best sexual experience."

Kaname chuckles, his eyes morph into crescents but don't break contact with amethyst. His normal indifferent expression rests back on his face as he starts talking. Everyone else in the room shifts their attention to the dark-haired Adonis, except Zero who stops staring back at the brunette. Aidou immediately notices the change of attitude and directs a worried gaze at the silverette.

Kaname starts, his gaze not breaking away from the silver-haired man, "It actually happened during my last year of high school. It was a graduation party, and there was this junior who slipped into the party by his friend."

Zero quickly kept up with the story and he immediately knew what the brunette was going to tell the small group so he stands up and everyone's attention shifts to him. Aidou almost stands up to look after the silverette, but Zero makes a stopping gesture before muttering, "I think I'm gonna throw up."

Zero walks away from the group and most of the people in the circle's attention shifts back to Kaname. The tall brunette is still preoccupied with the retreating form of the silverette. Aidou excuses himself soon after and follows Zero out the room. The rest of the group lets him be.

Kaname stays in his corner, following the disappearing figure with a mere gaze and recapturing everyone's attention, "Ah, I'll continue some other time."

* * *

Aidou walks around the house in search of his silver-haired companion who was definitely not as nauseous as he'd claim, else he would've found him in the bathroom right across the room they had been occupying. He sensed something bothering the silverette, he just couldn't pin point _what_ and he was going to get answers. The blonde man shouts Zero's name repeatedly, but they had all proven to be in vain when his best attempt at shouting had only blended to the ear-shattering music.

Somewhere out there, Aidou knew, one Zero Kiryu was drinking himself to forgetting or escaping something that he'll soon know when he confronts the silver-haired beauty. He keeps on walking around the vicinity, looking for that unique silver mop of hair on someone's head, but to his disappointment, he can't seem to find the silverette so he settles for approaching other people about the silverette.

Most of the people he asked were either too drunk to function or didn't understand what he was saying. Aidou stops asking after a while and contemplates on giving up. But, then, he finds his cousin amidst the wide space —sitting and chatting with a girl he didn't seem interested in. Aidou pulls the tall russet-eyed man from the awkward situation, and Kain follows without saying.

They both head to the garden area to actually understand each other. The blonde man starts, "Have you seen Zero?"

Kain raises a brow and crosses his arms at the thought. He surely didn't think the silverette was the type to attend frat parties like that, "Not really, and are you sure he's here?"

"Yeah, I was with him earlier. I saw his little best friend hanging out with the sorority girls earlier, so that should explain why he's here."

Kain immediately looks concerned and asks, "Where have you checked already?"

"The whole first floor and the unlocked rooms by the second floor"

"Let's split up: you check the third floor. I'll check the gardens and some of the locked rooms upstairs. Meet me back here when you're done."

Aidou nods and goes up immediately to check the third floor, pushing away drunk and preoccupied people in his way in search for the silver-haired guy. Kain goes around the gardens and because of the relatively quiet ambience of the place and sobriety of most people; he manages to ask other people about a silver-haired individual passing by. Only one of them has seen the silver-haired man, and his description was rather vague but at least now he knew that the silverette had been loitering around the house.

* * *

Kaname paces himself around the room to calm his nerves. He gazes at the contrasting crimson color of the bed to its snow-skinned and unconscious occupant. The dark-haired man had already locked the door, knowing what would happen soon when the silverette wakes up. It was amusing how he was the one who'd find the silverette first. Maybe, it was fate.

Upon finally calming himself enough not to pounce on the unconscious silverette, Kaname sat on the side of the bed. He leaned down on the peaceful silverette, as he tuned into the soft intakes of breath. He uses the back of his hand to trace the contours of the silverette's face—reveling in the smooth texture of Zero's skin.

Zero's face gently changes its expression which starts at a furrow of his brow. His eyes follow not soon after, slowly opening before being pulled shut for a while and progressing to a half-lidded stare at his surroundings. His light and steady breaths slowly become labored intakes of air at the sight of his companion.

Kaname doesn't make any pretenses and leans over, drawing closer to Zero. Zero's head is still groggy from his nap so he doesn't react as fast but when realization dawns him that Kaname is too near for his comfort, he pulls away from the pining gaze and shifts his eyes until he gets the strength to lift his arms and push the other man away from him. Kaname doesn't insist on his position and helps Zero push himself away from the silverette by pulling away and making the other believe that he still has the strength to deter Kaname's advances.

Kaname holds a hand pressed against his chest and kisses it. Zero pulls his hand away and pushes himself up to a sitting position, draping his legs away from the bed with his feet lying flat on the floor. The silverette stays in the position with his hands on the bedsheets pushing downwards to pull his body up. He doesn't actually manage to stand. He pulls himself a few centimeters up from the bed but lands on his butt after a while.

Kaname uses this opportunity to embrace the silverette from behind, his arms encircled around the lithe figure. Zero can't find the strength in him to struggle against the other man. The silverette doesn't find the same motivation to go against the restrictive arms. It was intrusive but not exactly unwelcome.

Kaname's head stays on the shoulder of the silver-haired man. He rests his head and whispers, "I don't love you."

The alcohol-riddled brain of the dark-haired man slips its thoughts carelessly to the silverette who was in the same position. Zero hears Kaname's voice with perfect clarity, and he understands. Kaname wasn't the type of person who'd fall in love. He wasn't interested in love nor the vulnerability of it and Zero managed to think that up despite his alcohol riddled brain. The silverette hears a draw of breath from the man behind him. Kaname speaks again, "I don't think I _do._ "

Zero tries to reply but he hears Kaname's labored breathing and realizes that maybe it wasn't appropriate for him to butt in at that certain point in time. The brunette seemed like had plenty to say but he chooses to ground his thoughts into small fragments of words. Kaname finally continues, "But I think you're the closest thing I have to _love._ "

Zero furrows his brows, thinking of how _ridiculous_ Kaname's drunk talks sounded. He hears the slight tremble in Kaname's voice and holds the dark-haired man's hands with his own. Kaname's fingers press harder against each other and he speaks, "I want to have you, monopolize you, and _own you_ because you're… _you?_ "

"Great conclusive skills there, Sherlock," Zero retorts at the back of his mind

Zero empathizes with the brunette for some reason, despite knowing that he should be livid at how Kaname had been talking about him. He kisses the brunette full on the lips to finally quiet him down. He knows he'll regret it soon enough; and soon comes all too early when Kaname deepens the kiss.

He'll regret it in the morning. It's the way it had been and no second mistake was going to change the first. Zero gives into the touch and the moment. He forgets every inhibition he would force himself on when the alcohol doesn't numb his senses as he turns to face the dark-haired man to deepen the kiss. Kaname completely dominates Zero, as he sucks on the other's lower lip and lays the silver-haired man down by the bed

Zero lies down and wraps his arms around Kaname's neck as he pulls the other down and pulls himself up to position his mouth right next to the other's ear. He confesses, "I loved you...back then, I—never mi—," Kaname silences Zero with a rough kiss before pulling away at gazing intensely at the vulnerable silverette.

Zero feels Kaname take in a heavy and quick intake of breath. The silverette whispers lowly, "It doesn't matter anyway. We'll both forget that in the morning."

Maybe, it was a good to just let go of everything and count it as mistake when sobriety finally hits him. Maybe, it's bad as well. But, today he'll drown in all the feelings and repeat the mistakes of yesterday for the unrequited love that was never meant to be reciprocated.

Kaname held Zero's arms above the silverette's head with one hand and kissed him from the forehead, trailing downward. Kaname quickly unbuckles his belt to tie the other's arms together, and continues his small kisses until he reaches Zero's collar bone. He pulls up the cozy V-neck and the silverette's top ends up pooling on the belt looped around his wrists.

Kaname continues his small kisses downwards, to Zero's abdominals and his clothed erection. Kaname kisses it lightly before roughly pulling down the silverette's pants, clearly eager to fuck the docile silverette senseless. Zero helps Kaname by lifting his hips and not long after, even the silverette's boxers is pulled out from his figure. Kaname steals a small kiss from Zero before undressing himself as well. It doesn't take him long until he feels for himself the raw and smooth expanse of skin under him.

Kaname grabs Zero's chin and initiates one final kiss, exerting his dominance and aggressiveness in a short interval before continuing his earlier trail of kisses towards Zero's unclothed erection. Kaname pivots his position into one whereby his lower half is hanging by Zero's face while he can take in the expanse of the silverette's cock.

Zero immediately understands what Kaname wants him to do the moment the other man's large organ is casually paraded to his face. Zero mutters an insult at the rude gesture but obliges to the unspoken command. He initially feels annoyed but decides to just make things so good, the taller man would just regret even trying to smack his dick on the unsuspecting silverette's face.

Zero gently licks Kaname's sex, that's when he realizes how hard it was to actually take in something that large in his mouth without control of his hands but he's determined to make the tall brunette cry or even just lose his composure over how the pleasure he can give him. The silverette starts from the tip, gradually pulling his head upwards to take in the large organ deeper.

Kaname's hands creep downwards onto Zero's unsuspecting behind. At first, the touches had been faint and almost easy to ignore, until he blatantly gropes and squeezes the round globes—enough to assure Zero that there would be marks. Zero moans while Kaname's dick is deep inside him and he's almost ready to give up because he was just so sure that Kaname had grown even bigger than he last remembered, not that he was keeping tabs or anything.

Kaname doesn't stop poking and prodding on Zero's back. With this, Zero pulls away from Kaname's dick; and whimpers unwittingly when Kaname continues roughly squeezing Zero's ass while the silverette's speech wasn't muffled by the other's cock. Kaname feels delighted over the delicious sounds coming from the silverette, while Zero's face had been flushed pink from the embarrassing sound.

Kaname puts in a finger without warning, which earns him a gasp and a complaint from Zero, "Hey! Warn me with this shit!"

"It's not my fault that you're so tight," Kaname retorts and Zero feels his face flush a darker shade of pink.

Kaname smirks at the silverette's reaction and experimentally inserts another finger. Zero manages to bite his tongue before releasing any sound, but his flinch doesn't go unnoticed by the taller man. Zero glares at Kaname and scrapes his teeth along Kaname's girth. Kaname grunts at the painful retaliation, and while he did have that coming in one way—he wasn't going to miss the opportunity to have the excuse of 'punishing' the silver-haired man.

Kaname snickers and remarks in a playful tone, "You've been a very naughty boy, Zero."

"Really, daddy?" Zero tosses back in a mocking tone.

The retaliation seems to have gone straight to his groin, as Kaname could feel the painful hardening of his erection. Zero doesn't notice anything at all as he tries to untangle the belt from his wrists to at least get a chance at the upper hand. He doesn't linger on the thought much longer when Kaname scissors Zero's insides. The silverette almost forgot the painful preparation that had to be done before the pleasure could sink in.

Kaname puts in another finger without warning and Zero decides he already has enough but the moment that he tries to put a brave façade on, his speech gets caught up in a stutter when Kaname hits a bundle of nerves inside Zero, "S-stop it!"

Kaname is practically a bundle of joy from the response he receives from the silverette, as he grins wide. Zero can practically see the how Kaname's features had slowly morphed into a devious smile very likely to have been directed at Zero…or his orifice, "But Zero, you were _naughty_ and you know what happens to naughty boys, don't you? They get punished, love."

Kaname flips Zero effortlessly, the silverette's bound arms slam onto the headboard of the bed. For once, Kaname finally warns Zero beforehand, "I'm going inside, okay?"

Zero nods frantically, grateful for the fact that the brunette wasn't douche enough to just slam inside the silverette, given his size and the rather long span of time that Zero hasn't had sex—however Kaname remained clueless of the latter fact, he was very aware of how intimidating the girth of his sex was. Zero folds himself from his position, trying to pull away as much as possible from Kaname. It wasn't that it was an entirely bad feeling; there were small spritzes of pleasure with the pain but the _pain_ was searing and he could literally feel himself tear in two from Kaname's huge organ to the mediocre preparation that he had undergone.

Zero whimpers and muffles the rest of his speech by shoving his face on the pillow beneath him. Kaname pulls Zero closer to him, to let the silverette take him in deeper. As he is pulled away, Zero can't muffle the sounds he makes anymore. Kaname didn't appreciate the lengths Zero took just to cover up his whimpers and moans. He kept his hands locked onto Zero's hips, to sink deeper into the warm caverns of the silver-haired man.

Without releasing his hold on one hand, Kaname used the other to grab at Zero's chin and capture the silverette into a passionate kiss. Zero returns the affectionate act as he knows that it was mostly to divert Zero from Kaname roughly pushing himself inside the silverette's warm insides. Zero breaks away from the kiss and laughs a little before commenting, "You just indirectly sucked your dick."

Kaname doesn't take the bait and responds, "You can seek solace in your small victories after I fuck you into oblivion."

"You w-wish," Zero replies, however, not with the same intimidating tone he want as a stutter slips into his speech again. It was probably the overstimulation.

Kaname slowly pulls himself out from Zero, and the silverette just _knows_ that Kaname's going to slam back inside so he closes his eyes to prepare for the rough handling, but he doesn't feel Kaname thrust himself abruptly—in fact, the dark-haired man seemed to be taking it all slowly. Well, he was until Kaname decided that he wanted Zero facing him while he fucked the silverette senseless. So, Kaname pulls out completely and flips Zero to face him. This way the silverette can no longer muffle his voice.

Kaname lifts a leg and slowly enters Zero. Zero takes a rough intake of breath and bites his lips to avoid letting out any sounds. Only small muffled whimpers make its way out of the silverette's small mouth while Zero tries to hide his face by placing his bound arms in front of his face.

Kaname leans closer, and down on Zero to put up the silverette's hands. He doesn't miss a beat when he whispers to the undone silverette, "I want to see your face when I fuck you," Kaname slowly pulls out before thrusting back inside in an abrupt motion and continued his statement, "and how much pleasure I give you."

Zero feels a small and soft peck on his forehead and hears a small incomprehensible whisper from the dark-haired man before the latter goes and thrusts inside him in a fast pace, each thrust getting progressively deeper. Zero's moans filter through the air, with Kaname's groaning. Sensuality runs thick inside the four walls that encase them.

"I'm c-cumming!"

White fluid scatters around Zero's abdominals, and Kaname wasn't able to warn the silverette before inevitably releasing inside the lithe-bodied silverette under him. Zero feels the sticky substance flood his insides and Kaname's organ limp from the ejaculation.

Not long after, Zero falls back to unconsciousness from the exhaustive activity and Kaname stares at the peaceful silverette in his most vulnerable state. He knew that tomorrow, things would return back to normal and this would just be labeled as 'mistake # 2' in the archives of the silverette's head. But, this was a wrong he wouldn't even think of trying to correct. Kaname kisses Zero's forehead and wipes away the fluid stuck on the silverette's stomach. He joins the silver-haired man not long after, with arms draped around the other in a protective stance.

* * *

Tell me in a review your thoughts on the chapter. ;0


	9. We'll Remember it when Sober

Huge thanks to **freefall-gypsy, mar1711, Riddikuluss, Kitty-chan99, irmina, fireycloud** , and **ben4kevin**! You guys are the incredible best haha!

* * *

The weekend passes by quickly with Zero mostly holed up in his room, going out only when he had to eat, cook for his housemates, or tell one of them to refill the fridge. Most of the people were agreeable individuals so he didn't have any trouble trying to convince them to do chores. It was the weekend, anyway. Most of them probably took his seclusion as a means of coping up with the sudden sobriety and the horrible hangover from the night before.

Zero finally turns on his cellular phone after two days of inactivity. All the missed calls and text messages from unknown and a few saved numbers suddenly popped up all at once. He had already expected Yuuki's endless texts filled with Japanese emoticons and a few other strangers he'd probably handed out his number to when he was finally sober.

It was a Monday yet again and Zero feels extra dead today. It was probably written in the scrolls of heaven that he would have symbolical Monday morning classes to signify the death of his interest and soul. His first class was interesting, but…it took away more life from him than necessary.

Zero treads down the pathway leading to the classroom, taking the less taken and longer route which was basically going around buildings and using those small passageways in the higher floors of the structures to reach his place of choice. It took him longer, but he was mostly spared of the lifeless students who had to go to their first class or were still under the effects of alcohol.

Zero enters the lecture hall and like always, he manages to just slip inside without anyone taking note of his presence. It was a relatively small class, mostly because he took the subject later than it was prescribed in the flowchart. He catches sight of a familiar tall figure sitting beside his seat. The presence of the other wasn't entirely unwelcome but it was surprising.

"So, why are you here this time around?" Zero asked as he took the seat beside the stoic man. His greeting didn't surprise the other as he expected. The rustic-haired man only pivoted his gaze towards Zero and the latter could see a concern cloud Kain's dark hues.

Kain replies calmly, "We were looking for you last Friday."

" _We?"_

Kain nodded in response and explained further, "Hanabusa and I."

Zero had a moment of clarity and asked his taller companion, "So, you were in the party? I didn't think you were the type."

Kain snorts at the remark and retorts back, "Well, I didn't think _you_ were the type either," he continues—not letting Zero talk his way out of the situation, "Where were you, though? We looked for you for a good hour. Hanabusa probably had taken longer. He seemed really concerned."

" _You_ seem really concerned," Zero hastily replied.

Kain shook his head, "No, don't put this back at me. I'm asking where did you go that night and why was Hanabusa so concerned about you? He's not the type to just worry about people out of the blue."

Zero clicked his tongue and uttered a syllable to start an excuse but Kain saw through it easily, "I want the truth."

The silverette man gulped and bit his lip. He knew that he couldn't tell the truth to Kain. Despite not remembering the entirety of yesterday's events, he still had those small flashes of memory where he'd see himself under Kaname—melting from his touch alone. He'd remember mistake number two more vividly than the first—and he just didn't have the heart to bring up the matter especially in front of an uninvolved third party.

Kain looked even more worried at the state of the silverette. He tries to console the troubled man, "It's okay; you can tell me at a better time."

Zero shook his head, knowing it would be better to tell the lie now than prolong the agony of trying to think up of a believable alibi, "No, it's alright. It wasn't much of a big thing, anyway."

 _I'll tell you the truth, but not the whole story._

"I met an old flame in the party, and it was nostalgic but then I remembered how we broke it off and it was probably the alcohol that made everything seem like a big deal. And, honestly that's it."

Kain looked concerned, but it seemed as if some weight was put out of his shoulders. He definitely bought his story and chose to believe it. So, Zero tells Kain, "Can you relay that message to Aidou as well? And tell him I'm sorry for leaving him."

"Why did you switch your phone off? I tried calling."

Zero contemplated on how to answer that question in connection with his excuse but it was just perfect timing that the professor went inside the room to start his class, leaving Kain to forcibly exit the room with unanswered questions. The tall russet-eyed man didn't completely believe Zero, but he bought the excuse for now. There were probably some things that the silverette wasn't confident in disclosing to an acquaintance he had just met recently—but he'll figure out the truth sooner or later. For now, he'd have to relay the message to Aidou and work a morning shift in the café.

* * *

After his first class, Zero took the initiative to cancel Yuuki and his routine lunch with a single text message— ignoring the paragraph long texts his best friend sent him. He relays another message to notify the shorter brunette that he still feels buzzed from Friday despite knowing that hangovers don't last more than a day but he was pretty sure that the dark-haired girl didn't know that.

Yuuki doesn't take time in replying. Zero can't help but smile at the bubbly brunette as he walks back to his flat, taking the long route to avoid most people yet again.

 _Ok! Get well soon!_ _。ﾟ_ _+._ _ﾟヽ_ _(●´ω_ _)_ _ﾉ。_

Zero's phone rings again. This time, it's a call from an unknown number. He declines the call, but the number quickly calls yet again. Zero turns down the phone call as he walks forward. By this time, he's already by the connecting bridge between the Commerce building and the Liberal Arts building in floors that were usually empty. His phone rings again and Zero takes this opportunity to finally take the phone call and stop at the middle of the pathway to answer the call.

"Who is this!?"

Zero hears static from the line and harsh breathing with a strange reflective echoing of familiar auditory stimuli. A baritone voice introduces itself to Zero's hearing when the person from the other line speaks in an almost hushed tone caused by the harsh breathing, "Look behind you."

Zero kept walking—completely forgetting that he still had his phone on his ear—as he tried to avoid even glancing behind. He is immediately reminded of the device pressed to his ear when he hears the same voice speak again from behind him, with the same words being echoed by his phone, "I'm right behind you."

Zero doesn't stay to listen any longer as he runs off. He hears heavy footsteps made by the harsh impact of sole on floor. They weren't in sync with his. It got louder. He felt a certain presence gravitate faster towards him. He sped up and tried to outrun the other, opting to take the stairs instead of the elevator so as not to be caught. And, he did follow through—walking down the spiral staircase meant for a fire exit and not daring to look behind him.

Heavy footsteps followed Zero down the path. When Zero finally found the exit door for the ground floor, he felt a sudden adrenaline rush and pulled the door to open it. He heard the footsteps get increasingly louder and he knew that the other person was getting closer and closer, probably getting the same adrenaline rush from the sound of Zero ceasing his steps.

The door didn't quite open, and Zero quickly assumed that it was just because it hasn't been opened for quite a while and the door had been too jammed in place. Zero didn't find out whether the door was jammed or simply locked as he hears a slam and knows all too well the large presence behind him, enveloping his form with his shadow highlighted by the dingy white from the old lightbulb. Zero doesn't have to look to know that the other man's hands are pinned to his sides to trap him.

Zero closes his eyes and berates himself mentally for not being fast enough to outrun the other person. Kaname's voice quickly cuts through Zero's thoughts when he speaks with his voice echoing in the empty hallways, "We need to talk."

Kaname's voice reverberates through the empty spaces in the confines of four walls. It echoes and resounds in the annals of Zero's conscious; and it takes Zero a lot of time before he snaps into a certain level of awareness of his surroundings, he especially takes note of the ragged breathing against his ear.

"I don't think there's anything to talk about."

* * *

After sending the message to Zero, Yuuki headed back to her flat—determined to create the outline for her special project. She doesn't notice the man tailing her back to her place until he makes himself known when Yuuki's already in the process of looking for her keys. The brunette's initial reaction was to pull out the customary pepper spray from her bag, but stopped through her motions when she recognized the identity of the other man.

"Aidou?"

The blonde man nodded, knowing that the dark tinted shades and form-concealing clothes didn't initially give his identity away. Yuuki immediately furrowed her brows at both the presence and the strange get-up of the blonde man.

Aidou cleared his throat and spoke, "I want to talk to you."

The look of confusion on Yuuki's face only deepened. It was strange because he hasn't exactly been in contact with the blonde man more than that one time she managed to join the table including him. In fact, there had been no proper introductions at all. He had only been pointed out to her by Takuma and that was all, "talk about _what_?"

Yuuki withheld herself from searching for her keys and faced Aidou fully then asked, "Why are wearing shades at such a cold morning?"

Aidou sighed at the diversion of topic and was about to redirect their talk to what he had to say; but from the tinted view of his lenses, he could understand that the short brunette wasn't going to listen to him if he doesn't explain. Instead of talking, Aidou pulls down his shades to show red-rimmed eyes, and quickly repositions the spectacles back.

Yuuki takes a sharp intake of breath, and asks offhandedly—looking genuinely concerned and seemingly serious, "Are you… _high_?"

Aidou groans and realizes how feather-brained the girl was, despite her claim being a possibility. He explains to clear off the suspicion, "No! I am _not_ high. I haven't slept last night because I was finishing up a paper that was due this morning."

"So, you were cramming," Yuuki retorts.

Aidou's eye twitches at the flat remark despite it being the truth. He was actually doing school work at the last minute, but that wasn't his purpose for going all this way. He had to set things straight so he tries to go back to what they were supposed to talk about, "I'll tell you straight out that this is about Zero and that party from Friday night."

"Zero," Yuuki speaks in a questioning tone, "You mean to say you're close enough to call him _Zero?_ "

"It's a complicated origin story," Aidou tries to explain while trying not to look Yuuki in the eye and continues, "but that doesn't matter. That Friday night—"

Yuuki cuts Aidou immediately, "I lost Zero a few minutes after entering the house, and I didn't really see him afterwards if that's what you're gonna ask."

"Oh," Aidou lets the disappointed tone filter through his teeth. He _does_ remember seeing the girl with a bunch of sorority girls that included Kain's ex who, in retrospect, was probably sending him a glare when she saw him glancing their way.

Yuuki recognizes the saddened tone and offers him a compensating thought, "but I can help you sew a few things together because I _did_ ask around a bunch of people afterwards. But, tell me first: why are you so concerned? Zero could've just up and left the moment I found company but you seem to know more."

Yuuki digs through her bag to search for her keys as Aidou thinks through on whether he should disclose what really happened that night. He, later on, shrugs it off and settles for telling the truth—or a vague picture of it.

Yuuki hummed after finding her keys. She unlocks the door and responds, "Okay, just go in and tell me what you know in the living room."

Aidou mutters a small agreement and follows Yuuki inside the flat, leaving his shoes behind to take a seat at the arm chair. Yuuki leaves her own shoes by the entrance, and leaves her bag on the empty cubicles past the shoe rack. She goes and stays on the loveseat, reveling in the comfort of upholstered furniture, "What were you saying earlier?"

Aidou explained, "I was with him for a good hour or so, but then he gradually became sad or just down, I guess. He had pretended to be unwell to walk out from the small group we were in and after that, he just disappeared. We couldn't find him despite searching for past an hour."

Yuuki leaned back on the soft surface of the loveseat and started disclosing what she knew, "I can't really tell you where he could have gone off to, but I know the places where _he didn't,_ " the brunette sighed and continued, "this is going to be a long discussion. Would you like a drink?"

"Nothing alcoholic"

Yuuki walks to the fridge then pulls some of the compartments inside to check for drinks. She laughs for a moment at the wide array of alcohol, probably bought by his brother and calls out to Aidou, "Non-alcoholic, right?"

Aidou makes a sound of agreement from his position. Yuuki yells back, "We have water…...and _Capri Sun._ "

"Never mind," Aidou shouts back and Yuuki goes back to the living room with two juice packs at hand, receiving a baffled expression from the blonde. Yuuki takes her seat and notices the expression sent her way. She pulls off the straw and inserts it in the tetra pack, then takes a quick sip before telling the blonde man off, "It's not for you."

Yuuki started talking again after taking a few long sips that immediately emptied the plastic container of the juice drink, "Well, so, you said you looked for him and probably presumed that he was home by then, right?" Yuuki receives an affirmative nod so she continues, "He wasn't home. It was about midnight already and I also assumed he went home because I couldn't find him around so I called his flatmate who checked up on his room, but didn't find him there. I asked him to contact me when Zero goes home. He sends me a text at 9:00 AM the following day and tells me that he hasn't been going out his room except for meals; and out the apartment until today."

Aidou leaned on his hand with an arm propped onto the right arm his chair, and nodded to let Yuuki continue, "I asked a childhood friend that Zero was close to, but he wasn't there either; campus buildings close early during Friday nights, so he can't just stumble upon the library drunk off his ass. I checked the local drinking house but saw no signs of tipsy silver-haired people. I tried to check around my house as well, but he wasn't here _obviously._ I just literally ran out of options to think of that I let things go and I think you should too."

Aidou gets lost deep in thought at the information offered to her by Yuuki. He definitely wasn't going to let this go too easily. While in deep thought, Aidou failed to notice his phone ring and vibrate on the side table he left it on, but Yuuki noticed and verbally pointed it out.

 _I talked to Zero. Let's meet up._

Aidou immediately stood up after reading. He was finally going to get a good answer for all his worrying from the previous night. The look in Aidou's eye doesn't escape Yuuki's observation and she raises a question, "If he's not in all of those other places, where else do you think he'd be?"

Aidou stopped his motions for a moment to think about the question. Yuuki doesn't give him enough time to contemplate as she proposes a theory, "Well, obviously, he'd be in the frat house with someone he knows. You'd think that he would've probably slept with someone, but I don't think Zero's the type to just sleep with a stranger he just met, no less in a frat party. But, there's my two cents. Update me if you can."

Aidou nodded and left the dark-haired girl's flat, leaving Yuuki to drink the unopened Capri Sun from her side.

* * *

Kaname bent his head down to Zero's ear and muttered in a voice just loud enough for Zero to hear—the faint reverberation only leaving incomprehensible reminders of spoken word, "Stop running away."

Zero countered that immediately with a response spur of the moment, "I'm _not_ running away. I'm just turning the other direction."

"Yes, and the trail to that _other_ direction ends here; so doesn't that mean you should turn back to where there's a lengthier path to tread?"

Zero retorted, " _No._ I could have had a 'lengthier path to tread' if you only removed your blocking arm from the door and let me walk away from this situation fast and _easy._ "

Zero could practically feel the change in the dark-haired man's expression when the latter snorted before pointing out, "So, you _are_ running away—albeit slower."

"Kuran," Zero uttered the other man's name, dissociating himself from the familiarity that Kaname had been forcing down his throat.

Kaname's expression shifted to a more serious one from the complacent haughty smirk that had usually been a consistent fixture in the dark-haired man's appearance. Traces of his playful attitude had all been gone once his name had been uttered with the unsympathetic tone, "Remember when you said we'll both forget it in the morning?"

Zero takes a quick intake of breath; the nuance became amplified by the emptiness of their location. Kaname manages to take note of the reaction and gathers from that alone that Zero _does_ remember and not even that copious amount of alcohol can erase such an exceptional moment from his memory. The silverette's silence only confirms the truth. Kaname curls up his fist against the steel door, and Zero is the first to notice the dark-haired man's unconscious action; but the latter eventually uncurls his fist and releases his arms from its restrictive position as he calmly walks up and ceases his steps to mutter lowly, "Well, I didn't."

Zero doesn't catch the low whisper. He catches onto the small echoes that slowly diminish in volume, but he never hears it loud enough to tell Zero what his ears had failed to comprehend the first time around. He doesn't call out nor ask Kaname to repeat his words. He's happy with the seemingly mutual detachment that has been granted to both of them even just for now.

* * *

Tell me what you think in a review and I'll see you in the next update which will hopefully be soon. ;)


	10. Puzzles and Pieces

Huge buckets of love to **mar1711** , **Kitty-chan99** , **Miss spontaneousx** , **KiryuuTeme** , **freefall-gypsy** , and **ben4kevin**! :)

* * *

Zero's ordinary university life resumes without much to say. Kaname doesn't make his appearance for another day. The silverette was uncertain whether that factual component made him happy or uneasy. He wasn't necessarily concerned over Kaname's welfare but an unsettling feeling at the pit of his stomach bothers him completely. It was alike to the last time that the dark haired man had lost contact with him. However, there was a more prevalent possibility of the silverette man being smudged away from Kaname's life. The mischievous expression on that painstakingly handsome face will gradually disappear as it develops to a blur, and then complete nothingness.

Two days had past and the silverette had found himself inside a literature elective class beside a certain perpetually optimistic individual. The same individual was apparently a close friend of the dark-haired man whom he had suspected to be avoiding him but it doesn't matter, anyway—or it shouldn't.

It seemed as if the blonde man was feigning ignorance, or was genuinely clueless of what was happening between his close friend and new acquaintance. Zero doesn't dwell on the matter any further as the professor stops sorting his things and actually stands up from his chair to greet the non-responsive class. The silverette tunes out his surroundings to focus only on the lecture.

The literature professor who Zero didn't know the name of started talking about …well…literature. It wasn't really a dialogue worth noting, just the typical 'what comes to your mind when I say this word about literature' and a bunch of morning people participating in the discussion.

From what Zero could filter out from the lecturer's speech was that he was going to discuss a book which he had recommended a few weeks ago, saying that he would give out an original copy to the 'special student' he chooses to create a report for the book which was going to serve as extra credit. This time, the professor's interactive element of the discussion is to ask the philosophy majors in the class. Zero immediately raises his hand, caught off guard by the sudden question. After realizing he was the only one raising his hand, Zero quickly put down the limb but the professor smiles at him and takes note of the silverette's face. The professor goes and asks the majors of other students before proceeding to his discussion.

"In the early 70s, a certain book served as a fixture to the best-seller's section. The author was unknown but the content had drawn the masses into reading it despite the anonymity of the writer. Reproduction was immediately ceased after a small company had asserted copyright claims to the content, and that was how the book was pulled out from the best sellers and bookstores in general."

The class seemed to be unerringly interested at the enigmatic explanation of the usually dull professor, so the latter took this as a signal to continue his story telling, "The book is entitled as _The Trichromatic Theory of Existential Opportunities._ It's a long title but it should be pretty self-explanatory from then on."

Takuma nudges Zero softly and shares his remarks, "Isn't this interesting?"

Zero nods with a small "I guess" and doesn't delve on the matter any further.

The professor explains the background further which is basically just a bunch of statistics pulled out from the internet and secondary sources. He doesn't speak much about the content, probably for the _lucky student_ to be given the spotlight. The brief discussion ends with the professor saying, "With that said, I am giving the extra credit to _you._ "

Zero immediately notices everyone look to the back side of the room, so he went along and tried to look behind him as well so as not to stand out, but the few people behind him were staring back at him which was strange so Zero just pivoted back to his original position. He eventually realized that everyone's gazes weren't drawn behind the room, instead it was towards him. The giveaway was the professor staring at him—and trying to make eye contact which was totally _not creepy._

The professor goes and pulls out the class record to check the silverette's name and states, "Kiryu Zero, right? Talk to me after class."

"You're really lucky to have extra credit from Shoto-sensei," Takuma whispers to Zero, while partially paying attention to the lecture.

Zero doesn't even try to hide his disinterest, as he gives his full attention to Takuma, "That's his name?"

Takuma smiled and nodded, "He's actually really famous around here for being a terror to his students. Take the extra credit. Anyone in this class would need it."

"Why did you get even this class?"

"I thought it would be fun."

After the class was dismissed, Takuma patted the silverette's shoulder and bid his farewell before walking out of the classroom to his next class. Zero, having been called out earlier, fixed his things at a slower pace until only the professor and he were left in the class. He approached the desk with a sluggish pace, eager to quickly pivot his body towards the exit if the other man doesn't notice his presence. Unfortunately, his professor had been keeping a close eye at him for the entirety of his stay.

"Kiryu, right?"

Zero inwardly groaned when he heard his name escape the other man's lips, and begrudgingly walked to the table in front. Zero nodded, opting for the non-verbal response because saying "yes, sensei" or any of that variant sounded childish…or porn-y.

"You might be wondering why I chose you."

Zero doesn't make any response to the statement, knowing his professor was going to follow it up with another, "It's mainly because of your major."

"Oh," Zero speaks, his tone not reflecting the inflection of his inner voice basically saying _if you didn't fucking raise your hand we wouldn't be swarmed with extra school work._

"I haven't had philosophy majors in two years _which is strange_ because literature and philosophy are closely tied, but moving onto the main point: this book is a philosophical book that isn't as well approached as your Western figures," Isaya explains to his silver-haired student who only nods in response. Upon the confirmation of the other's attention, the elder man explains further, "I wanted to get the perspective of a man of philosophy and after two years, I've finally caught up to someone who can do this project for me. Do you have any questions?"

Zero shook his head, and clutched his bag—ready to just _leave_ the classroom. Isaya doesn't notice the gesture and assumes that the silverette is invested or even interested by the slightest by the philosophical piece of literature as he grabs a copy of the book from his briefcase and hands it over to the silverette.

"I want a report on pages 89 onwards, but I'm letting you borrow the book so you can satisfy your curiosity."

* * *

That evening, Zero spent his time alone in the relatively empty library. Most of the students were probably going home for the long weekend or finally having their first eight-hour sleep for the entire week. There was no rest for the silverette as he had to start up on the book report.

He started reading from the first page. There was probably context provided in the first 88 pages of the book. It had started at a relatively interesting foot, an introduction to the cluster of mystical answers to life's ultimate questions.

An hour past reading the first two segments of the book which were relatively short compared to the last portion which had spanned a little over a hundred pages compared to the eighty-eight pages of prior context. Zero held a page of the book, feeling a strangely drawn to the following content—a strange gravitation towards what was to be unveiled with a flip of a page.

Zero sighed and looked around to take a break from his continuous reading and was surprised to find someone sitting across him. Zero almost jumped at his seat when amethyst met a calm celeste in its most scrutinizing form. The person across him remains fixated at his presence, and Zero could only nod awkwardly and greet the person across him, a stutter escaping his lips, "H-hi?"

The brunette in front of him mouths a reply, but Zero doesn't hear the auditory equivalent of the lip service. Zero comes back to reality when the man across him places a hand over Zero's frozen one over the unturned page. On cue, Zero recovers from the shock upon the physical contact.

"Turn the page."

Unable to find his voice, Zero nods and does as he's told. He looks at the book and finds a blank page on both sides. There was nothing else but mere page markers.

From the other side of the table, Shiki seemed to be positively surprised by the outcome. While the silverette was still staring at the blank page, Shiki turns the page himself, feeling impatient.

 _Red Chances_

* * *

"So, you're avoiding him?"

Kaname sighs and rests his arm on the side table. He smothers his face with his hand and takes a deep breath before turning his attention to his sister who was comfortably lounging on the loveseat while he had taken the arm chair, "I won't really say _avoid_."

Yuuki disregarded the statement and initiates a new conversation, "Aidou came here the other day, by the way."

"Who the fuck is Aidou?"

Yuuki sent a look of disbelief at Kaname, which urged the other to actually reevaluate the people he has met for the past few days. He eventually comes up with a face to match the name, and a certain happening a few nights ago, "Oh, _him_? How is this even relevant?"

Yuuki immediately sensed the bitter tone, "They noticed."

"Noticed what?"

"They noticed that Zero's acting _strange._ "

Kaname perked up at the insinuation. Yuuki immediately stood up when she got the reaction she was waiting for, "So, does this mean he still—,"

Yuuki cuts Kaname and continues his sentence, "likes you?"

Kaname doesn't give a verbal reply as he follows Yuuki's form when she walks to her room. For the second time around, Yuuki doesn't directly address Kaname's statement, "When this works out, you owe me a higher GPA."

Yuuki leaves and goes back to her room, fully knowing how her brother was faring. A small smile creeps up her face as she stands right in front of her door, her hands pressed flat on the hinged barrier. She bites her lips to hide a squeal, but that doesn't wipe the big creepy suppressed grin painted on her face.

* * *

Kain groaned and explained to his cousin for umpteenth time, "He told me that he just saw his ex, and I think that's it."

Aidou spoke in a trivial tone, "But, is that _all_?"

The taller man crossed his arms and replied, "I don't think that's all but I think we should give him space. We're not his life-long friends. We're not the best people he'd want to disclose his life on."

Aidou seemed to be swayed by the argument for a minute. The abrupt shift in expression had been verily visible to the perspective of the rustic-haired man as the blonde man had almost looked hopeless, before a glimmer briefly passed by the other man's eyes, "But who is this mystery person?"

"Like I said, we're not in the right position to ask," Kain replied then added soon after, "We should just give him some space."

Aidou shook his head and remarked, "I don't think we should give him space. That's a bad idea?"

"Says who?"

Aidou strongly responds, "Says me!"

Kain narrows his eyes at the blonde. Aidou doesn't sense the eyeing coming from the other man, his face still complacent. The light-haired man's smug expression immediately dropped when Kain asks, "Did something happen without you telling me?"

* * *

Thanks for making it this far! Tell me what you think in a review and I'll see you again in the next installment :D


	11. Red Chances

A heap load of gratitude to **ben4kevin, mar1711, haruhirika, Kitty-chan99,** and **MissSexyRain**! Additional notes after the chapter. :)

* * *

 **Red Chances**

A human being's existence is defined by three choices (or chances). Each choice is embodied by a certain color that should signify each purpose. Out of the three, the most crucial choice to make involves a _red chance._ Unlike that of the previous theoretical divisions, this final sect delves into less objective matters—and due to the fact that emotions are complicated and impossible to measure by regulation, it is appropriate to regard this as the most complicated facet in the spectrum. A red chance is a single opportunity in life whereby fate makes a gateway for the individual to be eternally tied to the other end of the unseen wrapped string. Once the individual manages to respond to that opportunity, it is only proper that his or her fate be tied with the other person at the end of the string. There is no guarantee as to when this chance may occur, for it is only in retrospect that one can identify that defining moment.

* * *

The week eventually ends as another starts yet again. What doesn't pass with the week, though, is the unease Zero feels from the absence of a certain dark-haired man. As much as the silverette would _love_ to say that he had been completely fine with the set up; he couldn't lie to himself with the voices inside his head. It was strange because he has survived all those past few months without the presence of the wine-haired man, and _now_ after appearing for brief moments in his life; he suddenly got himself a starring role in the smooth run of his life.

As he walks to his first class like routine, it still doesn't escape his mind. His emotions fog his conscious that he isn't able to sense a large presence following him at his slow pacing. The other person wasn't necessarily hiding however it wasn't as if he was trying to make Zero know of his presence.

Zero doesn't notice the shadow overtaking his own, neither does he worried glance sent his way. The silverette remains oblivious to the attention directed to him until an inquiry makes its way past his ears, "Are you okay?"

Zero almost jumps from the unanticipated question; however his reflexes don't seem to function as it should. He still manages to make a small and noticeable sharp intake of breath. It was enough to show that he had taken notice.

"What's bothering you, Zero?"

Zero tries to look nonchalant as he shrugs it off and responds in an uninterested tone, "Just a rough morning, that's all."

Takuma gives him a polite smile. He doesn't accept the explanation as is, "How about you join me for coffee?"

Zero shakes his head as he apologizes and explains that he had a class that morning and that he can't risk being as physically absent as he is mentally. The silverette doesn't stay long enough to elucidate what he really meant as he walks towards his original direction wordlessly. Takuma stays put and pulls out his phone to call his dark-haired friend.

"He didn't say yes to coffee."

The tone from the other line didn't seem to be impressed, nor even at the right state of coherency, _"Who didn't say yes to coffee?"_

"Oh, I know that you already know," Takuma replies and chuckles right after the statement.

" _Why should I care about him not getting coffee?"_

"Because you do, and that's that."

" _You wake me up just to fuck with my mind, really. That's just how our friendship works, huh?"_

"Well, I didn't have anyone to talk to. Zero left me here alone so!"

" _Honestly, I don't get—_ ," Takuma doesn't let Kaname finish his sentence as he cuts with one that silences the dark-haired man, "You do know what it means when he's not even taking the opportunity to come with me to the café where a certain person you and I both know works."

Kaname releases a guttural sound from the other line, " _Yes, I_ know _how it works. I'm neither stupid nor oblivious."_

Takuma presumes a serious tone, "Good. I'm giving you two weeks, Kaname. If you can't resolve your relationship with Kiryuu, I don't think I'll be rooting for your side anymore."

" _What do you mean?"_

"What I'm telling you is that if you don't want Zero to be taken right under your nose, then stop dancing around him and treating the two of you like fragile glass. Neither of you would break if you'd just pursue him properly."

" _Who's gonna steal him away from me? Kain?"_ a sardonic laugh transmits from the other line, " _You're the one who insinuated that Zero doesn't even have any interest for that man."_

The line remains silent for a moment. The tension slowly builds up, until it was gently cut down by a deceptively placid tone that utters a single word that becomes knife-like as the implication gradually dawns upon the other, "me"

Takuma ends the call, and turns off his phone before tucking it inside his pocket. A friendlier expression resurfaces as he paces to his destination. He hums a tune to keep his thoughts at bay.

* * *

Zero sighs for the umpteenth time that day in front of Yuuki. This time, the shorter brunette doesn't ignore the sound of distress and calls out, "What's wrong?"

Zero sighs again, not articulating any verbal response. Yuuki makes a face at the dissociative state of the silverette, "Okay, stop sighing," Yuuki looks at the table between them and continues resolutely, "or I will shove this pickle up your nose!"

Zero stares at the pickle, measuring the small edible square in between Yuuki's chopsticks. He contemplates on whether the small cut out could fit in his nostril, and without thinking about it; he unwittingly sighs again.

Yuuki becomes increasingly frustrated at the silverette's response, or lack thereof. She doesn't necessarily shove the pickle up Zero's nose. The thought had gone completely at the back of her head. She remarks at the silverette, "Seriously, _please_. You're making me develop a pet peeve."

Zero doesn't sigh this time, but that doesn't erase the pout from the silverette's face. For a moment, Yuuki wants to just hug the silver-haired man because he looked so pitiful and defenseless. Yuuki brushed off the thought and focused on getting answers from the silverette, "Tell me what's wrong… _and_ eat your food."

Zero doesn't open up as Yuuki had wanted. It was expected but it was still disappointing to Yuuki. The silverette asks something unrelated, "I notice you haven't been asking me about your project recently. What's up?"

Yuuki laughs nervously, as she thinks up a good back story to the suspicious observation, "Well….I've been sorta busy. My mind is just _not_ at its best form right now."

And, just like that, Yuuki's concern on Zero's well-being had quickly flown away. It was immediately replaced by an anxious feeling of getting caught by the man in front of her himself. She laughs even more, but Zero doesn't suspect a thing because his mind is already preoccupied as is. He's already accepted the obvious excuse with assumptions running at the back of his head that had been far from truth.

* * *

Small and almost unnoticeable knocks reverberated inside the four walls of the silverette's room. It should've been easily unnoticeable, had it not been magnified by the silence. The taps had been irregular in sound. It would go fast and increase in volume, but then slowly dissipate into small clinks before increasing in volume and frequency yet again.

Despite the noise from the outside, the silver-haired occupant remained unbothered in deep sleep, with only the silhouette of his resting body visible to the covered windows. Zero remained oblivious to the tapping until a strong wind came and brought about a sound of something dense falling or making impact with the cemented surface of the terrace.

At the loud noise, Zero had immediately woken up as it was uncommon for noise to seep through the night because by contract, his flat had prohibited a lot of activities that came with the college stereotype: one of them having parties or any blaring activities past dawn.

Zero opens the door to his veranda to check if there was anyone outside. He walks into the small floor space to find the local stoner sitting on the other side of the building on a recliner, dressed in nothing else but a bathrobe and shades that covered more than half of his face.

At nights that he'd feel unsettled, he'd always catch sight of the same guy on the recliner but this time was different in the sense that the stoner guy wasn't staring into nothingness like always. This time, stoner guy was actually staring at Zero or his direction at least.

Zero tried to ignore the stoner guy to survey his surroundings, and due to the unreliable light source; he had to blindly feel his surroundings. His hand eventually sensed the metal railings. Upon detection of the barriers, he immediately held onto it as he let his foot do the rest of the work. His foot eventually lands on a softer elevated surface. He tries to kick it to get even the smallest reaction or indication of what was on the floor.

A raspy guttural sound catches Zero's attention. It doesn't take the silverette long to realize that it was actually a grunt—which had meant that some guy probably fell from the roof to his small veranda.

"What the fuck!?"

Zero furrowed his brows at the instant reaction, "What?"

The form unhinges from his curled up position before standing tall in front of the silverette. Zero couldn't really see the face of the other man, but the outline of his figure had been visible due to the low light coming from other homes.

Zero doesn't notice the other man's moving limbs until he pulls the silverette back into the room after opening the sliding door leading to the terrace in one swift movement. Zero let himself be roped into the room by the tight grip as he wasn't given enough time to react. Once both of them were inside the room, it dawned Zero that the other occupant could have been a criminal, at best a robber. He doesn't contemplate any further as he runs towards the door to run out of the room. He doesn't end up in the right place, mistaking his closet as the door. He, however, manages to find the switch for a light source.

The light switch flicks to on and an almost blinding light envelops the room. Zero's eyes are forced to close at first because of the great contrast in brightness. When he opens his eyes with better vision that has adapted to the brightness, he immediately flicks his attention to the intruder in the room who had also seemed to be blinded by the sudden influx of artificial illumination.

"Aidou?" Zero exclaims upon recognizing the sunny blonde mop that belonged to only one person he knew.

Aidou replied in a snappy tone while still momentarily blinded by the extreme brightness, "What?"

"What the _fuck_ were you doing?"

The blonde man bats it off, "That isn't important," but Zero quickly responds to the dismissal, "Yes, it is, you could've easily been suspected as a robber or a serial killer! What were you _thinking_?"

Aidou dismissed the tone of concern and immediately put things straight by expressing his clear intent, "It really doesn't matter. I just need you to answer me…truthfully."

The confused expression doesn't wipe itself away from Zero's face, but that doesn't discourage the blonde man in front of him wholly. The silverette asks in a sarcastic tone, "Oh, wow! Woe is you who walked all the way here to disrupt possibly a whole building of college students just to ask one of them a goddamn question."

"It's _questions_ , okay, and it's important to me."

Zero challenged, "How important?"

Aidou let out a large breath and replied, "Getting answers can make me stop thinking about it and finally help me sleep properly at night."

"Well, shoot."

"That night, during the party, where did you disappear to after leaving the room?"

* * *

Kaname was sitting on a wooden chair, facing the bare window as he was lost in deep thought. In his right hand was a glass of barely contained water. He holds the piece of glass with his hand above the rim and moves the cup in a circular motion.

His phone rings from the other side of the room. He loses control of the glass' clockwise motion but he manages to grab hold of the small glassware before it could fall, but he underestimated the strength of his hold. The glass immediately broke into pieces at the pressure applied. Kaname cursed for a moment but quickly shook his hand to remove the debris. He went across his room to answer the phone in a seething tone, "Hello."

The other line doesn't transmit any sounds for a moment, before a small release of breath was communicated through the lines followed by an almost quiet tone, " _Since you're in such a bad mood, I think it's only appropriate that I put you in a worse on."_

Kaname groaned, "What now?"

" _Rido's coming back."_

"What!?"

The other person let out another large breath and explained, " _He'll mostly substitute for someone else for a month of the term, and be given time to decide whether he really wants in. The administration seems to like having an established addition to the faculty so if he really wants to, he might just teach for the entirety of your stay or even longer_."

"Who is he going to substitute, and who the fuck let that _maniac_ out of the asylum?"

" _I'm not sure who, but it was either a law or a philosophy class…or literature? I don't really remember. And, he wasn't exactly a patient in the asylum."_

"What? How can you be so unsure? I don't care. He's equally as crazy as his patients."

" _I really don't. The guy has three Ph.D.'s for a reason."_

* * *

Zero had mostly been toning Aidou's voice down. Inside his head, he had already been rehearsing the lines he will tell the bright haired individual. The same words he had told the other man's cousin. He wouldn't feel guilty for the white lies since it shouldn't be part of their business anyway.

A brief pause comes, and Aidou stops speaking altogether. Zero was ready to barrel in the conversation with his own input when the light-haired man cuts him to it, "I like you."

Zero's left speechless. He never anticipated anything of that sort to happen. It was all too short notice, all too fast. He had only met the blonde man not too long ago. Aidou cuts the renewed silence with a release of his breath and continues, "I don't know, okay, and I'm not even sure if that's the right way to say it but…I can't stop thinking about that night during the party. I can't erase the sensation of you right next to me, or even just in front of me. I _don't…_ I can't. Fuck!"

Zero's mouth snaps shut, and Aidou doesn't look at the silverette as he rambles further, "I'm not asking for a lot. I don't even want answers to my questions in this point in time, but I'm—I _like_ you and you probably don't know how foreign these words are on my tongue but I do and I just want you to give me and you—us—a chance for _anything._ I'm rambling and I'm lost over what the fuck is even happening to me right now because literally what _the fuck_. I don't even curse on a regular basis. I don't even like cursing, but I don't know anymore how to express how I feel. "

Zero sighs; and that cut Aidou from his rant. His crystalline amethyst stares at glassy cerulean, almost mirroring the pure inflection of uncertainty. Zero wasn't ever good with approaching foreign things or people or even feelings. The silverette doesn't think enough of it, but he mechanically speaks out to the light-haired man an answer neither of them anticipated, "Yes."

Aidou stares at Zero in unadulterated confusion; however it would be ignorant not to mention the light undertones of relief and happiness. Zero almost loses control over his words as he literally just drags the words away without any mental lingering on his response, starting off with a stutter, "I-I'm giving you a chance."

* * *

Buckle the fuck up, bitches. Last chapter is twelfth MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Thanks for reading! :)

So, gratuitous post-script: The term is finally over! On the other hand, I'm sorta recovering from surgery but other than that, everything is less stressful and more wonderful. Christmas! I was supposed to edit all the chapters but I got lazy lol. I'm done with a chapter of the harem fic I promised but it was so short and not as good as I wanted it to be so I'm having troubles with that yeh.

Anyway, see you guys on the twelfth chapter which I sincerely hope to finish within the year. If you liked the story, favorite and alert if you haven't yet—and write in a review what you thought about the chapter. ;)


	12. New Beginnings, Old Mistakes

Fortunately or unfortunately, it's not the end yet. I had a pretty hard time trying to fit a chunk of content into one chapter so I've decided to extend it…to lengths that I'm not sure of. Another wonderful thing to take note of is that there will be wonderful hot sweaty mansex.

Anyways, I offer a bucket of gratitude to **DoNotDistract, irmina, ben4kevin, Kity-chan99, MissSexyRain, mar1711, Akita Kira, xYuka,** and **Senja844**. Additional notes at the end of the chapter. :)

* * *

Zero stared back at the other person in confusion, unsure of how to approach the spectacle in front of him. The other person stared back with less confusion and more amusement embedded onto his handsome features. A crooked grin seated itself onto the man's face, as he broke the silence that had enveloped their meeting, "See something you like?"

Zero snapped out of his reverie immediately and was ready to verbalize his thoughts, when one feature of the other man immediately caught his eyes: a feature he should've picked up earlier on but was too distracted to actually notice, "Your eyes…"

"Well, I'd say it's my best feature…or one of my best. I think I'll contribute _the_ best for something more _concealed._ "

Zero took in a deep intake of breath and exhaled, "Okay. I—you look awfully like someone I know. I am actually trying to avoid that _someone_ so I guess, thank you for not being him. I think I'll go now."

Zero turns away from the dark-haired man. However, the dark haired man stops him verbally, "Kuran."

The silverette looks back at the other man in confusion, and the latter remains smug with an amused expression. He repeats, "Kuran, right?"

Zero doesn't understand what the other man was hinting at, but he nods from what he could comprehend by the brief responses. The other man smirks haughtily and offers a hand, "Kuran Rido"

"You're a Kuran!?"

"I don't really believe in singularity, but if that's how you wish to identify me; I'm willing to oblige," Rido finishes with a drawn tone; hinting at the silverette to introduce himself.

Zero shakes his head and bows while muttering a small farewell and running away from the dark-haired man's scope of vision. His figure gradually shrinks as paces far away from his original position. He eventually disappears as he enters a building.

Rido stays at the place the silverette left him at; His interest unwavering as he followed the slowly fading silhouette of the silver-haired man. He laughs a little to himself, knowing that there was only one other Kuran in the vicinity of the campus—and it would be perfect timing to visit his lovely nephew and know more about the silver-haired beauty that may or may not have charmed him.

* * *

Kain was moping at the corner of the café. There weren't a lot of customers at that time of the day. It was a hot afternoon, and no sane person within the vicinity would actually want coffee—no matter how good it is—at that temperature.

By the counter, his co-worker doesn't even try to suppress the small chortles that were escaping her mouth. Her enjoyment remained unconcealed to the four other occupants of the room as she let out a set of giggles every now and then.

"Stop laughing, it's not funny." Kain speaks out, but that only makes the laughter resound even louder in the small space inside. The rustic haired man warns the other, " _Ruka"_

Ruka laughs at the poor attempt at intimidation and remarks, "Kain, we're not in pre-school anymore. Your 'threatening' voice stopped fazing me after the kiddie years."

Aidou tries to cut in the conversation, but Kain catches the small movement in his mouth and stops the sunny blonde man before he could even utter a phrase, "No."

Aidou goes back to his slouched position, staying in a similar state as Kain. Ruka laughs louder and slams the counter out of pure hilarity. Despite this, Aidou's form remains slouched and Kain doesn't change his demeanor.

Upon seeing the reaction of his two friends, Ruka decides to be serious for just a moment so she remarks, "Kain, back the fuck up."

Kain shoots a look of surprise at the light-haired girl who bats of the attention with a gesture. She continues her speech, "So what if your love interest decides to give Aidou a chance? It's just 'a chance'. He's not mindlessly going to accept this goof," Ruka points to the blonde man to which the latter protests against the label. She continues, "Maybe this wouldn't have happened if you had been more direct with him. You're literally two disgustingly pitiful shitheads way too deep in the same asshole."

From the corner of the room, Shiki hums in approval. Beside him, Rima shrugs—not understanding the context of the situation – so she pulls out another box of Shiki's sweets to feast on, not minding the repulsive metaphor.

Kain stands up from his seat to walk out of the small confined area. Ruka immediately senses the shift in movement and shouts at the rustic haired man, "Now, where the fuck are you going?"

Kain doesn't address the question and keeps his pace while walking. Aidou manages to verbalize his thoughts this time, "Do you even know where he is?"

That seemed to stop Kain from his pacing, so he looked back—the intimidating aura slowly dissipates as his expression turns sheepish upon realizing that he doesn't know where the silverette was. Ruka doesn't prolong her reaction any further as she almost trips off the elevated surface of the counter from laughing hysterically. Aidou sends his cousin a smile of pity.

Takuma enters the café at this state and asks, "What did I miss?"

* * *

Zero wasn't the most athletic person in the world, in the country, in the university, or even in his rented flat. He had an athlete scholar for a flatmate which greatly dumbed his skills down. When he was in high school, he had actually been more fit than the underwhelming college student he was today. Granted, that he had mostly been chasing off rule-breakers from being a prefect, and using more muscles in his face for frowning. The latter may be attributed to his prefect duties as well. It should also help that Zero has chosen a course that mostly had people who do not sit up their chair for centuries until they've proposed a theory contrary to an age old principle that no one but their field cares about.

Returning to the conclusive sentence of the silverette not being athletic; it can be concluded that Zero does not have good stamina. And, he _does not_ have stamina to outrun an entire class of thirty people going after him who are also driven by the motivation of additional credit.

"I caught him, sir!"

Calm footsteps, "Nice. Nice."

Mismatched eyes narrow to slits in a gleeful expression, as the owner of those eyes approached the trapped silverette with a calm pace, "Well, I guess it's been properly decided. The opinion of the majority over the opinion of one is always the more favorable option."

Zero groans and ceases his struggle after contemplating about the beneficial effect of just surrendering to his fate of being the class rag doll, "Yeah, okay. I'll do it."

After saying such, Zero was bombarded with cheers and whispers of gratitude. It was a strange predicament he found himself into. Meeting and being terrorized by another Kuran first thing in the morning, realizing that this same Kuran is his literature professor substituting for his original professor's absence for an international convention, and eventually getting caught in his professor's shenanigans that may or may not have a tie in with the incoming university week. (a.k.a. Zero was getting a main role in the very cliché theatrical play that should have been left in secondary education)

Rido calls the attention of his students, "Alright, let's all go back to class and discuss the details."

Zero's classmate who was holding him captive onto one side of the encased space let go of the light-haired man, and tapped him at the back as all others had reverted their attention from Zero to Rido.

It was literally one of the worst days his blonde-haired companion had to cut class. But, then again, he could've easily conspired against Zero for the extinct plus points as the other man had gladly explained to him.

Zero feels a buzz in his pocket. He pulls out the gadget to find that his best friend texted him.

 _I'm not free today. Come to the gardens later. 7pm._

* * *

Kaname sits by one of the outdoor recliners on the veranda in his shared apartment with his sister. He crosses his arms and diverts his attention to the unnaturally dark sky that morning. He flattens his lips and asks out loud, "What time did you tell him?"

Yuuki walks to the sliding door separating the veranda from the rest of the apartment, and without removing her attention from the small device, she shouts back to Kaname, "7; University Garden."

Kaname pauses for a moment to contemplate the place. His face scrunches when he remembered the infamous reputation of the gardens. He turns to Yuuki with furrowed brows, expression clearly inquiring _why._ Yuuki feels the heated gaze directed at her and shrugs, "Well, I'm pretty sure things would end up _that way_ so why not?"

* * *

Hours pass and 7:00 PM comes up without a hitch. Zero finds himself walking to the dimly lit university garden which was the only part of the campus that remained open during night hours. He looks for the familiar figure of his best friend but fails to find anyone matching her physique. In fact, he couldn't even see anyone from where he was. Walking by the cemented steps of the garden, he peered into the visible areas of some bushes to see if his friend was only hiding from him and playing an uncalled joke but that didn't seem to be the case. Not this time.

The night crickets were already starting to blend into their nightly ensemble—creating an almost peaceful shroud of undecipherable noise when Zero's ears picked up a small muffled sound which couldn't be more than five meters away from him. He immediately assumes it was Yuuki, and walks silently to the source of the sound when he hears a grunt from another person who was clearly not the same female voice he heard earlier.

Zero pauses to listen closer to the auditory. The cricket sounds die off but don't completely disappear. His ears start picking up the small nuances of sound from the corner and that's when he realizes that the person he heard didn't sound like Yuuki and that he was probably going to disturb a _very_ private moment between two lovers. He makes a swift turn with his head bowed down, not realizing that his face was beet red.

Something stops Zero from leaving the garden: a tight grip on his shoulder from behind. Zero pivots his body to face the other person, complacent that he would see Yuuki but that wasn't the case. At first, the silverette can only see the dark silhouette because of the light right behind the other man but when his eyes finally adjusts—that's when he's suddenly hit by a sense of familiarity for the wine eyed man in front of him. He swiftly tries to walk out but Kaname doesn't let him. The taller man keeps his arms locked around the silver-haired man's body in a tight embrace, "We need to talk."

"I don't—," Zero starts but hears a growl from Kaname which causes him to jump a little from the threat, "okay…maybe we do but I don't think this is the right place or—Hey!"

Kaname doesn't let Zero continue his useless reasoning as he carries him over his shoulder to walk to his cousin's place, which was the nearest private area from the gardens.

Zero struggles against the manhandling and frantically punches Kaname's back, his legs kicking at any part of the dark-haired man's body, "Let me go, you bastard!"

Kaname doesn't budge from the violent protest and continues walking at a fast pace towards his cousin's place. It doesn't take him long to find himself in front of large entrance doors which were most likely manned by Shiki's butler. He knocks and the house security immediately lets him pass. The wine-haired man shouts by the halls with a struggling silverette still in tow, "It's Kaname. I'll be crashing at your place tonight."

Kaname doesn't hear an affirmative but if his cousin's servants were alright with him entering the premises then that would impliedly approve his presence. He makes his way to the nearest spare bedroom and opens the door without haste—throwing the silverette at the nearest soft surface which was actually a bed before locking the door from the outside and throwing the keys somewhere in the room. He'll think about that later.

Kaname's attention shifts to the confused silverette at the foot of the bed, trying to be as far away from the dark-haired man as possible. The taller man narrows his eyes at the appetizing sight and curses, "shit" right before jumping into the bed and taking the silverette by surprise and capturing his lips in an intense kiss.

Zero doesn't anticipate the sudden advance and was left to circle his arms around Kaname. At first, he tries to turn away from the kiss. Kaname immediately notices the aversion. He deepens the kiss and elicits a moan from the silverette. The latter's eyes go glassy at the intimate action that he can't help but give in to the pleasure and reciprocate the kiss.

Kaname pulls away and grins at the whimper from his companion. Zero flushes a darker hue at the realization that he had released such sounds. He tries to look away but Kaname pushes him down and pins him to the mattress with his hands blocking the silverette from looking anywhere else but Kaname himself. He impatiently kisses the silverette yet again, pressing his crotch onto Zero's and muffling the light-haired man's moans as he devours the latter's lips.

Zero tries to pull away and say something. Kaname keeps Zero in place and unable to catch his breath. The dark-haired man finally pulls away to catch his breath; his hands loosen and Zero immediately turns away from the predatory gaze, eyes glazed over, "I t-thought we were supposed t-nghh!"

Kaname tweaks the silverette' clothed nipples, to which the latter immediately protests and remarks, "Fuck now; talk later."

Zero pushes himself upwards with his hands helping him prostrate his back and replies, "Why not both at the same time?"

Kaname grins at the implication of the comment. Zero realizes the insinuation of his words and goes red when he spots that familiar gleeful expression on the wine-eyed man so he tries to reason out, "I mean not saying that I—mmpf"

Kaname quiets the silverette down with a short kiss and pulls away once more, "Shut up."

Zero pulls away and looks visibly offended at the remark. Kaname rolls his eyes and quiets the potential retort with a deeper kiss, his hands pressing Zero's chest to push the latter further down. The dark-haired man pulls out his limbs and uses his hands to latch onto the buttons of Zero's pants.

Zero immediately notices where Kaname's hands are going and makes a noise of protest. Kaname pulls away from the kiss and pushes Zero back to the mattress and puts his face millimeters apart from the silverette while mouthing "stay"

Zero temporarily freezes, hypnotized by the vulnerability being shown by Kaname. Kaname whispers a small shushing sound to Zero's ears and resumes the heated kiss. His tongue roughly leading Zero's on, fervently relishing in the kiss. Zero gradually tries to sit himself up; his arms wrapped around Kaname's neck. This time, Kaname doesn't try to push him down.

Kaname unzips the silverette's jeans and pulls it off while Zero lifts his legs. Kaname throws off the piece of clothing and pushes down the silverette after successfully removing the article of clothing. His hands lay by the sides of Zero as pivots his body to fully encapsulate the silverette beneath him.

Zero tries to pull away to say something but Kaname holds the silverette's face in place while devouring the light-haired man's lips passionately. Zero then pushes Kaname with the strength he has left and Kaname takes this struggle seriously so he pulls away and gives Zero an inquisitive look.

It takes Zero a moment before he finds his voice, "It's unfair that I," Zero flushes a bit, "—that you're not…well."

Kaname gives Zero a pressing look, to which Zero doesn't return as the latter turns away immediately, "It's unfair that…I'mtheonlyonegettingnaked."

Kaname almost looks relieved and starts undressing right at that moment, but stops midway through—leaving him shirtless and Zero pants-less, "I want to see you undress first."

Zero looks alarmed at the request at first but his face eventually morphed into his normal albeit slightly embarrassed expression. He starts crossing his arms in front of him to slowly pull up the plain white shirt he was wearing. Kaname gets impatient and strips off his pants and boxers.

Unaware that the latter was undressing Zero looks away from Kaname to tuck his shirt somewhere. Zero's attention turns back to Kaname and his gaze immediately meets a fully unclothed and smug expression on the brunette. His eyes get naturally drawn down on Kaname's hard organ.

Kaname laughs at the expression on Zero's face and this snaps Zero out of his reverie, only to blurt out his first thought, "You've gotten really big"

Kaname grins and holds Zero's cheek, his thumb gently caressing the soft flesh as he leans forward and whispers, "Yeah, and I'm gonna get this big thing inside of you."

Kaname flips the silverette and pulls down the latter's boxers to press his erection in between Zero's ass cheeks. Kaname rubs his hard organ slowly and painfully on the crevice in between the silverette's perky ass. Zero shakes his head and speaks, "I don't think…"

Kaname smiles at the reluctant response and pulls Zero into another adoring kiss. Zero unwittingly returns the kiss and gets lost in the throes of passion when he feels a sudden intrusion on his orifice. He protests against the action and scratches Kaname's back, causing the latter to pull away, "It's too sudden!"

Kaname smirks and tells the silverette, "Well, you do it."

"I-I've never…"

Kaname puts up a shushing finger, "Shh, we'll just go by my rules."

Kaname pulls up Zero's ass and spreads his ass to get an experimental lick. Zero jumps at the wet feeling of Kaname's not so subtle intrusion, and looks back at the brunette. Kaname returns the heated gaze as he puts in his tongue, causing Zero to instinctually pull away, but Kaname holds a tight vice-like grip on Zero's hips to keep him in place as he licks inside the tight orifice.

Zero tries to pull himself away from the pleasurable sensation but Kaname's grip keeps him in place while his body is going against his rationale and rocking back every now and then to Kaname's face. His mind is resolute but his coherency is arguable as he is plagued by stunted bouts of pleasure, "t-that's dirty d—don't n—ngghh!"

Kaname pulls his tongue out and puts in two fingers. Zero clenches his fist on the sheets and tries to bite his whimpers away from Kaname's ears. The dark-haired man places small kisses on Zero's back as he thrusts his fingers inside Zero's hole. He sucks a bruise on Zero's supple flesh causing the latter to whimper. The unanticipated sound goes to Kaname's dick, and the dark-haired man could feel himself on the edge so he starts scissoring Zero's insides vigorously as the latter tries to block out his moans with both hands when he couldn't silence the lewd sounds.

Kaname curses and apologizes before pulling the silver-haired beauty into a kiss as distraction. The latter reciprocates the action, but doesn't anticipate Kaname entering him in a swift motion. His gasps get muffled in the kiss while Kaname gradually pushes himself inside the small hole once he had entered, stretching the silverette in a painfully slow rate.

Kaname could feel Zero trembling from his touch. He deepens the kiss in hopes that this will distract the silverette from the searing pain. Zero clutches onto the soft fabric as leverage from the searing sensation he felt.

Kaname pulls away from the kiss to whisper on Zero's ear sweet comforting words. Zero nods in response every now and then as he bites his lip hard to hide the sounds he was making. However, Kaname takes notice of the action so he ceases his comforting sentiments as he bites Zero's upper ear. Zero protests at the action, with his ears being one of his weak spots.

Kaname smiles when he sees that the silverette stopped biting his lips and thrusts himself inside Zero fast. He hits the silverette's prostate in perfect time as the latter didn't have enough time to recollect his dignity. Kaname followed through with the rough thrust and started rapidly pushing himself inside the flustered silver-haired man while the latter became a sputtering mess of whimpers and moans.

Kaname holds Zero's dick and aggressively rubs on the organ as he thrusts deep into the silverette. He pauses and holds Zero's dick in a tight hold, and releases when he feels himself empty his load inside Zero's entrance. Zero ejaculates on himself soon after, his stomach littered with the sticky clear liquid on his stomach.

Both lay still, recovering from the intense round of sex. Zero recovered first as he tried to pull himself away from Kaname's grasp…and dick, but it turns out that Kaname had other plans. Zero had successfully removed Kaname's organ from inside him which was oddly still hard. However, while the silverette had been trying to detach himself from the dark-haired man, Kaname had pivoted Zero to a sitting position above the brunette. Zero's legs lay on Kaname's sides while his ass was conveniently placed next to Kaname's dick.

As Zero towers the brunette from his position, he can't help but feel the exhaustion wash over him as he tries to actually sit himself up. The nausea washes over him and he's almost ready to faint as his body goes limp and his vision gets blurry. His body ends up hanging on Kaname's side. Kaname takes this opportunity to speak, "I want you to ride me."

Zero gets the urge to pull away and look at the taller man incredulously but he can't find the power to speak without slurring his sentences so he hits Kaname's head with the amount of strength he has left. Kaname laughs at the action, "I was serious."

"Nnh…it's a…one-time thing. I'm tired."

Zero privately applauds himself for managing to send a coherent thought across. Kaname laughs at the slurred speech and retorts, "How many one-time things are you planning to do?"

Zero shakes his head and holds a gesture in front of Kaname's face, "Hold on…..let me…" Zero takes deep breaths for around a minute, "Okay, I'm good. I think I'm good. Okay, here, I don't want us to happen because I'm still friends with Yuuki and I _want_ to remain friends with my best friend."

Kaname almost laughs at the rationale, "Is that why you're so adamant to sabotage my attempts to bring us together?"

Zero sighs and looks up at Kaname, "primarily"

Kaname groans and his hands grasp Zero's hips. He leans upwards to Zero, leaving their faces centimeters apart. Zero takes the challenge in stride and returns the heated gaze, "Well, I don't think we'll have problems with that. Now, get down on my dick or else."

Zero teases light-heartedly "or else what?"

Kaname doesn't give Zero any warning as he pulls the silverette upwards and aggressively slams the silverette down his organ. Zero, taken by surprise, unwittingly holds on to Kaname's shoulders. The silverette could feel his eyes go glassy at the sudden action. He directs a confused gaze at the brunette, "A little warning would've been—nnghh—n –nice?!"

Kaname holds Zero by one arm and tugs the latter closer to whisper on his ear, "or else that," the dark haired man purposely pretends to pull the silverette down one more time when the latter stops him. Zero gently tries to pull himself down instead. Zero curses at the rough searing pain and holds on tight to Kaname, his hands gripping the dark-haired man's shoulders tight while he tries to push himself downward.

Zero rests his face on the nape of Kaname's neck, trying to avoid both Kaname and himself to hear lewd sounds coming out of his mouth. Zero curses one more time. He looks straight at Kaname's wine-tinted eyes and stutters, "I th-think you got—nghh—b -bigger"

"I c-can't—AHH!"

It takes Kaname one desperate look for his patience to break. He pulls the silverette down in a single brutal thrust. Zero quickly loses what's left of his composure as his hands thrash and blindly grasp onto Kaname's skin like a life-line. Zero shakes his head at the vast overstimulation, both pain and pleasure holding him in a captive vice-like grip, "Y-you can't, nghh, go deeper"

Kaname presses a kiss at Zero's eyes which were clenched shut before holding the silverette by his back and carrying the latter to pin him on the wall. Zero is involuntarily coerced to interlace his legs around Kaname to prevent himself from falling, his arms encircle around Kaname's neck yet again. The dark-haired man keeps a vice-like grip on Zero's lower back, hands cupping the shorter man's ass fervently.

Kaname thrusts inside Zero experimentally, and the latter tightens his hold on the dark-haired man—afraid of falling from his position. After getting a hang of the position, Kaname decides to take matters into his own hands…or dick. He keeps his tight grip on Zero's back and slowly pulls out of the taut orifice, leaving only the tip in. Zero unconsciously whines at the empty feeling but buries his head on Kaname's shoulder to block any sounds from his treacherous mouth after realizing the sound he made.

Without warning, Kaname eagerly thrusts inside the warm cavern. Zero immediately takes a sharp intake of breath from the immense stretching in the short interval. Kaname pulls out at the same agonizingly slow pace before thrusting himself back inside and continues by thrusting vigorously. Zero is unable to silence himself anymore as he lets out a string of moans and whimpers.

Kaname feels his dick get swollen inside of Zero, and he knows the latter could feel the same stimulation. Zero tries to reach out to the dark-haired deviant, "D-don't cum inside anym-more!"

Kaname ejaculates inside the silverette in record time. Zero bites his lip at the extremely filled feeling. He tries to jab at the taller man's back but he only ends up almost falling from Kaname's grasp as the latter's grip on his ass had gotten loose after climaxing inside the light-haired man. Fortunately, Kaname manages to save Zero from falling by pinning him flat on the wall with his hands tightening its grip on the silverette's taut ass. Zero mutters, "I hate you."

Kaname laughs, "Whatever makes you sleep at night."

Kaname puts the silverette down back on the bed. Zero tries to sit up but feels a familiar ache on his hips. He uses a hand to nurse his sore backside and the other to assist him when standing up. However, the moment he loses contact with the sturdy frame of the bed; he immediately loses balance and falls on his knees with hands grasping the nearest concrete object there was.

Zero unwittingly fell onto a kneeling position with his ass up and hands grasping on the bed for leverage. Kaname catches the silverette at this position and directs an amused gaze at the fuming silverette. Zero returns the look with an angry expression which fades the moment he feels a familiar sticky liquid run down from his ass.

Kaname notices Zero's predicament and, despite the exhaustion post-copulation, finds the strength to carry the silverette over his shoulder and into the adjacent bathroom directly connected to their room. He opens the bathroom door and slides off the glass panel as he puts the silverette down and assists him to standing position.

Zero tries to stand up with shaky legs and Kaname holds the silverette by his waist to prevent him from falling. The dark-haired man closes the glass divider and runs the shower. Zero lets out a sigh when he feels warm water cascade down his skin. Kaname places gentle kisses across Zero's back while he uses his fingers to manually scrape his semen inside the silverette.

Zero clenches and unclenches his fist on the marble walls as he bites his lips to stop his lewd moans. Kaname takes notices and pulls out a finger from Zero's hole to insert inside the silverette's mouth. Zero is taken by surprise by the action. He glares at the dark-haired man but Kaname smiles good heartedly in response, "I want to hear you."

Before Zero could reply with a coherent response, Kaname kisses the silverette passionately while his hands resume cleansing the remains of himself inside Zero. Zero returns the kiss as he wraps a single arm around Kaname to bring the brunette closer and deepen the kiss.

* * *

The sun slowly makes its way to the sky as the light peaks through the thin curtains. The blue interior of the room lightens a marginal tint as the light reintroduces a new morning. The room is relatively empty save for a bed and a desk.

"I think it's wise not to tell Yuuki," a velvet voice cuts through the silent scenery.

Zero sits on the other corner of the bed, facing the opposite direction from Kaname. He heard the dark-haired man's voice very clearly. He knew it was a mistake to his friend's brother but he didn't think that the sober aftermath would be this painful. He replies, trying to ease the awkwardness away but his voice comes across as shaky, "I thought she knew?"

Kaname lays motionless on the bed looking anywhere but the boy he coincidentally shared a bed with the previous night and just a few moments past the time they woke up. He knows that this one night stand could evolve into something so much more—something more dangerous and engaging that he doesn't feel the need to even glance at the once bright amethyst eyes moisten at the painful confrontation he'll have to deal with.

"Not to this extent."

Kaname sighs and turns away from the silverette's direction. Zero feels the shift on the bed, so he turns to Kaname's direction only to feel rejected by the diversion of position.

Zero furrows his brows; he could feel the tears building up his eyes. He closes his eyes shut and grips the sheets hard before letting go and standing up despite the sore sensation by his hips. He clears his throat and speaks in a moderate and deceptively calm tone, "I'm sorry."

"I'm just saying we should take-," before Kaname could complete a coherent response to the uncalled apology, Zero had already slammed the door shut and left the dark-haired man in solitary confinement and guilt.

Zero walks away from the room, making a point to shut the door closed. He could feel the tears he tried so hard to control earlier cascade down the apples of his cheeks. He locks himself in the nearest empty room in the mansion and curls to ball, repeating mantras of how he'll bury his feelings, the mistake, and everything that will have to do with the tall dark-haired man.

Kaname curses loudly and pulls up a pair of pants before walking out the room in search of the silverette.

* * *

It takes Kaname almost an hour to actually find Zero. He approaches the silverette and tries to catch the latter's attention but the silver-haired man appeared to be vacant, his eyes traced by a faint red around the corners. He's sitting by a stool in the kitchen, and wearing the same clothes he wore last night.

Kaname pulls off two cups from the cabinets and pours the two of them coffee. He slams Zero's cup onto the marble elevated surface. Zero is visibly buzzed by the action. Kaname says, "About earlier, I'm so-,"

Zero cuts Kaname, "This doesn't mean anything, right?"

Kaname unwittingly clenches a fist and takes a sip, "It means whatever you want it to mean."

Zero turns away from the brunette's gaze and looks down at his coffee, "Okay…that's good."

Shiki enters the kitchen without a word and opens the fridge to grab a bottle of tea. He walks up to Zero and remarks, "you're prettier" to which Zero reacts with a disturbed expression.

Kaname drinks from his cup and confirms, "He's right."

"Don't start now. I'm really not in the mood."

* * *

So, the harem fic is up (lol) if anyone's even interested at this point. On the other hand, I recently created an AO3 account but forgot my password so I am back to this platform yet again. Nonetheless, write in a review what you thought and subscribe/favorite if you liked it and haven't done so yet. I'll see you guys in the next one. :)


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